[B]URLINGTON – A Canadian man who admitted to smuggling guns into Quebec, including some that had been stashed in the bathroom of a Vermont library straddling the international border, has been sentenced to more than four years behind bars.
The 51-month prison term handed to down Alexis Vlachos, 41, of Montreal, on Tuesday by Judge William K. Sessions III in federal court in Burlington was less than half of what prosecutors sought.
And, with credit for time he has served since his arrest in February 2015, plus any time for good behavior, Vlachos could be finished serving that sentence in a matter of weeks and sent back to Canada.
Vlachos had earlier pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and unlawfully exporting handguns from the United States to Canada.
Authorities said most of the more than 100 guns smuggled into Canada by the ring that included Vlachos have not been recovered. He has not been charged in Canada for any offense arising from the gun smuggling scheme.
“I was blinded by easy money,” Vlachos told the judge before his sentence was imposed Tuesday.
He said he was sorry for his actions and apologized to the “two great nations” of the U.S. and Canada for his “dishonesty.”
According to court records, Vlachos 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 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,” according to filings.
According to an indictment, in March 2011, the two other people cooperating with Vlachos would go to Haskell Free Library in Derby Line, a public library that straddles the U.S.-Canada border.
There they would hide a backpack that contained handguns in a trashcan in the library bathroom, then leave, according to court filings.
Vlachos, who was already in the library, removed the backpacks from the bathroom, court records stated. He then left the library through the entrance, which is in Vermont, and walked across the border into Canada, without going through a port of entry, according to court filings.
Vlachos then sold many of the guns in Quebec, court records stated.
“The crescendo of the smuggling scheme was in April 2011 when the defendant himself hiked across a remote section of the border near Wallace Lake in Vermont with about 34 handguns in a backpack,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Perella, the prosecutor, wrote in a filing.
“The defendant also played a critical role in selling many of these firearms, often for a hefty price in Canada,” Perella added. “The serial numbers of the firearms were obliterated before they were sold.”
Much of the hearing Tuesday centered on whether past convictions for Vlachos in Canada should be counted in U.S. courts when calculating his prison term under federal advisory sentencing guidelines.
Prosecutors sought to go back further in time to include additional convictions in Canada, leading to their request for a sentence of 104 months behind bars for Vlachos — or one month for each smuggled firearm, Perella, the prosecutor, said in court.
Perella did say it was unusual to count convictions in other countries against a person when determining their past criminal history over due process concerns in those jurisdictions. However, he said it is often done with Canadian offenses.
Judge Sessions ultimately did not go back as far in time as the prosecution requested, leading to a lower sentencing guideline range and prison term.
Paul Volk, a Burlington attorney representing Vlachos, argued for a sentence of “time served” for his client, allowing for his return to Canada where he could care for his ailing mother and help his father run his business, Peter’s Cape Cod Restaurant in Montreal.
Vlachos reiterated that point when he addressed the judge.
“My family needs me, your honor,” Vlachos said, adding, “And, I need them.”
He also said that he is not the same person who got involved in the gun smuggling operation.
“That was really ignorant of me,” Vlachos told the judge. “That guy was a selfish person.”
Sessions said later in the hearing that Vlachos appeared to have a strong “support structure” in Canada, with his family standing behind him.
“You’re 41 years old,” the judge said to Vlachos. “It’s time that any criminal activity stop.”
