Agora gun seller 'weaponsguy' pleads guilty

"Kansas Man Pleads Guilty to Exporting Firearms to Overseas Purchasers". 35yo Kansan Michael Andrew Ryan is charged with using 2 straw buyers, his ex-girlfriend Allison Mitchell and a Marlo Martin, to buy guns, and shipping them out of state & internationally to customers in Ireland, Scotland, & Australia. The indictment is unspecific as to the DNM connection, how he was found, or when. He also violated the terms of his release by being in possession of a pistol when his probation officers checked on 9 December 2015 (he blamed it on Mitchell). Sentencing is scheduled for 12 September 2016.

This, you may remember, is the Agora gun seller account which was flipped by LE and used to bust 15+ would-be gun buyers. The press release does not specify Agora or weaponsguy, however, it is almost certain that this Michael Andrew Ryan was weaponsguy: weaponsguy was known to ship out of the midwest; the case has been sealed since June 2015 (5:2015-cr-40050); the Australian police stated that weaponsguy was 33yo in 2014, and 2 years later, the DoJ press release states that Ryan is 35yo; Ryan shipped guns to the same countries in the same volumes as weaponsguy; Ryan is not connected to any previous case; the ATF were involved in Ryan's case, just as they were involved in running the weaponsguy sting.

There are some oddities in this case: the Australian press release said Montana and not Kansas; and the June 2015 timing is odd because I had guessed that weaponsguy's return from vacation in November 2014 was when he had been arrested and the account flipped, the Aussies said he had been arrested & flipped in September 2014, but Ryan is only officially arrested in June 2015 & doesn't change his plea until August 2015, with no hints in the PACER docket that he was cooperating before that aside from the judge's unusual willingness to let him out without any bail even after violating release by having a gun. There are a series of still-sealed entries on PACER dating around August 2015 which may relate to his guilty plea and cooperation, but that's a year after he should've been cooperating.

So perhaps his account was taken over forcibly when he was originally raided, using his computer images, and he only decided to cooperate post-June 2015 when he was finally charged? Alternatively, I could be wrong that this is weaponsguy at all, and the location/age/customers are all coincidences.


Comments


[21 Points] ReamTeam513:

We all know that for the most part firearms don't make it through and the vendor usually ends up getting caught, my question is why keep trying? Is there a smaller community that does this successfully? It just seems like a huge risk in so many ways.


[7 Points] -FreewayRickRoss:

2016 - 2014 = 2 years

33 + 2 = 35

Math checks out.


[3 Points] Bobrosshappytreesman:

I usually get Halfway through these post and realize its gwern posting it. Just from how great you write.


[2 Points] octomarvel:

Great post gwern.

We just banned all weapons sales on Apple.

It makes much too big of a target on ones back. Plus LE honeypots n shit. Markets need to protect its users from such operations.

I'm actually a little surprised this vendor was actually legit (until he got flipped). It's mostly just honeypots n scammers in weapons listings.

=)


[1 Points] thepostalinspector:

How do you know where weaponsguy was shipping from and the countries he was shipping to as well as the volume? Was this information made available by the would-be gun buyers after their arrest?


[1 Points] Lucia-Anil:

I could imagine it would be tough, to get that through AUS customs, to say the very least.


[1 Points] bassface69:

How do you even begin to ship a gun without the package having a huge chance of being seized. It's not like you can stealth it very much.


[1 Points] didYOUtryTOeat:

Just print that Shit with some carbon fiber resin, and mail it in pieces as a toy. I am waiting for the seller who ships out only 3D printed firarms.