[A] Canadian man has pleaded guilty in Vermont to smuggling more than 100 handguns into Quebec that had been stashed in a library straddling the international border.
Alexis Vlachos, 40, of Montreal, entered his guilty plea Monday in U.S. District Court in Burlington to federal charges of conspiring to export, and actually exporting, firearms from the United States to Canada, without a license, in violation of the Arms Control Export Act.
A sentencing date is set for May 7. Vlachos faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison.
Vlachos allegedly worked with two other individuals between July 2010 and April 2011 to purchase more than 100 handguns from firearms dealers in Florida.
The two others allegedly filled out paperwork and made “multiple misrepresentations about the nature of these purchases on forms required by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a release.
According to an indictment, in March 2011 the two other people cooperating with Vlachos went to Haskell Free Library in Derby Line, a public library that straddles the U.S.-Canada border. There they allegedly hid a backpack that contained handguns in a trashcan in the library bathroom, then left.
Vlachos, who was already in the library, removed the backpacks from the bathroom, federal prosecutors said in the release. He then left the library through the entrance, which is in Vermont, and promptly walked across the border into Canada, without going through a port of entry, the release stated.
Vlachos then sold many of the guns in Quebec, according to federal prosecutors.
Paul Volk, Vlachos’ attorney, said Tuesday that a pre-sentence investigation will occur and he is reserving comment on the sentence until that process is complete.
