{"id":156178,"date":"2024-05-01T12:06:27","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T16:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=156178"},"modified":"2024-05-01T12:09:20","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T16:09:20","slug":"army-major-hides-firearms-inside-rice-packed-blue-barrels-then-shipped-them-to-ghana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=156178","title":{"rendered":"Army Major stashed firearms inside rice packed blue barrels, then shipped them to Ghana"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kojo Owusu Dartey, 42, is a United States Army Major stationed at Fort Liberty. Dartey hatched a scheme where he would obtain firearms and related items before shipping them from the United States to Ghana. His plan involved stuffing firearms in blue rice barrels underneath rice and household goods. Unfortunately for Dartey, the Ghana Revenue Authority stopped his plans cold. They recovered the items that he attempted to hide and then they contacted the DEA attach\u00e9 in Ghana, as well as ATF’s Baltimore Field Division.<\/p>\n

From the US Department of Justice:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“We are partnering with law enforcement agencies across the globe to expose international criminals — from money launderers to rogue international arms traffickers capable of fueling violence abroad,” said U.S Attorney Michael Easley. “Through a partnership with Ghanaian officials, this rogue Army Major was convicted at trial after smuggling guns to Ghana in blue barrels of rice and household goods. I want to thank the Ghana Revenue Authority and the International Cooperation Unit Office of the Attorney-General of Ghana for their assistance in the investigation. I also commend the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attach\u00e9s to U.S. Embassy Accra and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs of the Department’s Criminal Division for their significant assistance to this prosecution.”<\/p>\n

“Far from being a victimless crime, firearms trafficking threatens public safety across our nation and beyond,” said Toni M. Crosby, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF Baltimore Field Division. “The Baltimore Field Division is proud to partner with the Ghana Revenue Authority and ATF’s Charlotte and Louisville Field Divisions for this investigation, which has kept firearms off the streets — preventing them from being used in any number of killings and other crimes — and ended this international firearm trafficking scheme.”<\/p>\n

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, between June 28 and July 2, 2021, Dartey purchased seven firearms in the Fort Liberty area and tasked a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to purchase three firearms there and send them to Dartey in North Carolina. Dartey then hid all the firearms, including multiple handguns, an AR15, 50-round magazines, suppressors, and a combat shotgun inside blue barrels underneath rice and household goods and smuggled the barrels out of the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, on a container ship to the Port of Tema in Ghana. The Ghana Revenue Authority recovered the firearms and reported the seizure to the DEA attach\u00e9 in Ghana and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division. At the same time, Dartey was a witness in the trial of U.S. v. Agyapong. A case that involved a 16-defendant marriage fraud scheme between soldiers on Fort Liberty and foreign nationals from Ghana that Dartey had tipped off officials to. In preparation for the trial, Dartey lied to federal law enforcement about his sexual relationship with a defense witness and lied on the stand and under oath about the relationship.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Department of Justice website provides additional details<\/a> as well as links to the legal documents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kojo Owusu Dartey, 42, is a United States Army Major stationed at Fort Liberty. Dartey hatched … Army Major stashed firearms inside rice packed blue barrels, then shipped them to Ghana<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[209,185,387,226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teh-stoopid","category-crime","category-international-affairs","category-veterans-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}