C-4 seized in Colorado in Navy SEAL smuggling case

[crazyitalian]

Kind of shocking to hear this kind of news, but it happens . . .

C-4 seized in Colorado in Navy SEAL smuggling case

LAS VEGAS – Federal authorities say they seized C-4 military explosives from the home of a Colorado man accused of conspiring with a Navy special forces SEAL and a Las Vegas man to smuggle machine guns from Iraq into the U.S. for sale and shipment to Mexico.
Federal prosecutors and agents in Las Vegas and Colorado say authorities also found grenades and night-vision goggles in the Durango, Colo., home of 34-year-old Richard Paul.
Paul and 36-year-old Andrew Kaufman of Las Vegas are being held on charges that they conspired with Navy SEAL Nicholas Bickle to smuggle and sell weapons to an undercover federal agent in Nevada.
Bickle was being held in San Diego, where a prosecutor says federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents are still serving warrants in searches for evidence.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Navy SEAL in California and men in Nevada and Colorado have been arrested and accused of smuggling machine guns from Iraq into the United States for resale on the black market, federal authorities said Thursday.
The special forces SEAL, Nicholas Bickle, 33, of San Diego, Las Vegas resident Andrew Kaufman, 36, and Richard Paul, 34, of Durango, Colo., were arrested Wednesday in those cities, the U.S. attorney's office in Las Vegas said.
A complaint filed Oct. 29 and unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas accuses the trio of conspiring to smuggle and sell 18 weapons and 14 other firearms since June to an undercover federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent in Las Vegas and Colorado.
Bickle is accused of smuggling about 80 AK-47 weapons from Iraq or Afghanistan, including factory-made 7.62 mm Iraqi machine guns that the complaint said would be difficult or impossible to trace. Other weapons included Ruger handguns.
"According to the other members of the organization, this was possible because Navy SEALs are not searched when returning from deployments," the document said.
Bickle began SEALs training in August 2005 and did two tours in Iraq, said Lt. Cate Wallace, a Navy spokeswoman. He is currently assigned to a SEALs team on the West Coast.
"This type of behavior is not reflective of the character within the Navy SEALs community," Wallace said.
The investigation began on tip from a confidential informant who faced felony battery domestic violence and robbery charges in Nevada and is cooperating with authorities, the complaint said. Neither the informant nor the undercover agent is identified.
Las Vegas-based ATF Special Agent Eric Fox alleges in the complaint that at least one of the accused coconspirators bragged that the guns were from the military in the Middle East and would be untraceable.
The complaint cited text message and bank records, and said at least one sale involved 10 AK-47 rifles for $1,300 each, and six handguns at $300 apiece.
The conspiracy charge alleges that Bickle, Kaufman and Paul engaged in firearms dealing without paying a special tax, possessed a machine gun that wasn't registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, and transferred an unregistered machine gun.
If convicted, each faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
A statement from Daniel Bogden, U.S. attorney in Las Vegas, said Bickle was due to appear Thursday in federal court in San Diego.
Paul appeared Wednesday in federal court in Durango, and was ordered held pending another hearing Thursday, Bogden said. On Thursday, he was ordered held without bond and transferred to Nevada. A search warrant affidavit remains under seal.
Kaufman was due Thursday before a federal magistrate judge in Las Vegas.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_weapons_smuggling_navy_seal;_ylt=AtQxEARLSD5mhZ 8B2kaNSFys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTQycjk0bW02BGFzc2V0A2FwLz IwMTAxMTA0L3VzX3dlYXBvbnNfc211Z2dsaW5nX25hdnlfc2Vh bARjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzUEcG9zAzIEcHQDaG 9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl9oZWFkbGluZV9saXN0BHNsawNjLTRz ZWl6ZWRpbmM-

[Paslode]

Navy special forces SEAL :rolleyes:

[rdret1]

Why do some of these guys totally lose all SA? Anytime there is an active armed conflict, BATFE, CID and everyone else are going to be ramping up the watch for idiots trying to sell captured weapons and military equipment. There were several knuckleheads got busted when we came back from Grenada. There were several busted after Panama; Desert Shield/Storm; etc. I know of a few that got away with bringing things back because they kept their mouth shut and their prize hidden. Those who tried to make a profit were immediately snatched up and taken to Kansas to try to look for ToTo.

[dr. mabuse]

Ruger handguns!? High speed low drag weaponry there.

After all that work, flushed a spot on the Teams for $$.

If true, what a stupid shite. :rolleyes:

[aegisnavy]

After all that work, flushed a spot on the Teams for $$.

What a waste. Now people who depend on him to stay alive and accomplish the mission are a man short. Probably the worst betrayal of all.

Not to mention, all the crap going down south of the border, and a SEAL trying to make a buck off it.

Feelin' kinda sick in the gut after reading this.

[kgoerz]

Not at all surprised seeing the Branch of Service involved

[mojaveman]

Ruger handguns!? High speed low drag weaponry there.

True.

If I'm not mistaken the government of Iraq bought several thousand Ruger P-95s for their police force.

[greenberetTFS]

What a disgrace he is to the Navy and his team...........:(:(:(

Big Teddy :munchin

[Oldrotorhead]

I am not SF or a SEAL but I do I understand your anger with this SEAL's actions and behavior. I can't defend his actions, but I don't understand how he could do all of what he is charged without someone knowing there was a problem, the volume of what is involved is just too large. I feel sorry for his teammates and wonder if any of them wished they did some intervention before this happened. I know that a number of guys have collected as prize or two for themselves and maybe a friend some things that might have been frowned upon, and this guy has well passed that level. The point I am trying to make is some of these guy stopped taking care of each other at the gate, or if he is truely an a**hole they should have dealt with it before he became a real problem.

If you think my comments are out of my lane please deleat.

[crazyitalian]

So more information was released on the smuggling case and it appears to be bigger than I originally understood it to be.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/rogue-navy-seal-charged-with-running-guns-from-iraq/

Someone clearly forgot to make a deposit into the amnesty box. Petty Officer 1st Class Nicholas Bickle, a 33-year old Navy SEAL from Colorado, based in San Diego, has been arrested and charged with participating in a multistate gun-trafficking ring, supplying AK-47s and handguns he allegedly smuggled from Iraq and Afghanistan. One of his alleged accomplices kept C-4 explosives stashed at home. Oh yeah, and Bickle was working on the set of Transformers 3.

According to a criminal complaint filed against Bickle and his alleged co-conspirators in U.S. District Court in Nevada (our Doc of the Day, which you can read below), the elite sailor was the supplier for a team of four illicit gun salesmen. Eric D. Fox, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, stated in the complaint that Bickle was able to supply the guns because SEALs don’t have to have their bags checked when returning from deployments. One of Bickle’s accomplices, Richard Paul, bragged to an undercover federal agent, “There is still Iraqi sand in this shit.”

Fox and his agents learned about the smuggling ring through an informant, and arranged to buy handguns and AK-47-model machine guns from the group on several occasions from June to October. At least 84 AK-47s, manufactured in Russia, Romania and elsewhere, were smuggled into the country for the group from “Iraq and/or Afghanistan.” Markings on some of the guns specify that they were the property of the Iraqi military. Handguns went for around $300; machine guns for $1300.

According to Fox’s investigation, the group had easy access to the guns: Some of the handguns an undercover federal agent bought “were originally shipped to Charleston Air Force Base in 2005, along with approximately 360 other similar handguns.” Anyone who has seen Armed Forces Network commercials on bases in Iraq and Afghanistan knows that troops are routinely warned against taking “war trophies” — like weapons — back to the States.

In a Nevada federal court yesterday, federal prosecutor Drew Smith called Bickle a “rogue Navy SEAL.” Bickle and his accomplices “didn’t care if the weapons wound up in Mexico or on the streets of Las Vegas” as long as they got paid. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the SEAL command in Coronado is cooperating with the investigation.

Bickle is described in the complaint as “very disciplined.” He certainly had a distinct style of operational security. “If you ever fuck with me,” he allegedly told a co-conspirator who dimed him out to the feds, “you know who we are. We’re the government, we’ll catch you.”

But he appears to be the most professional of the alleged gun-runners. Whereas Paul, a civilian identified in the complaint as the one of the undercover agent’s gun vendors, had no problem blabbing that Bickle was the source of the ring’s weapons. He also didn’t mind arranging arms sales by text message, telling an agent, “I’ll have it all set up for you! U want 10 k’s and whatever 9’s are left??” And he stashed five pounds of C-4 at his home, along with detonators, grenades and night-vision goggles, officers discovered.

Perhaps most bizarrely, Bickle appears to have been working on the latest Michael Bay action flick. One of the ATF agents investigating Bickle found “photos taken on the Chicago set of ‘Transformers 3,’ which included an individual who appeared to be Bickle. Further, Bickle’s cellphone location and bank debit records correspond with the filming of ‘Transformers 3.’”

Bickle is due in a San Diego court for his arraignment today. For now, read the criminal complaint against him, Paul and their alleged accomplice Andrew Kaufman:

The Complaint: http://www.scribd.com/doc/41157928/Bickle-Complaint

[rdret1]

“you know who we are. We’re the government, we’ll catch you.”

Oh give me a break! Is this one of the lines from Trans3 ?