Adair, Iowa had a population of 794. So, it seemed suspicious when its three-man police department asked regulators to purchase 90 machine guns, including an M134 Gatling-style minigun capable of firing up to 6,000 rounds of ammunition per minute.
Federal agents later discovered that Adair's police chief, Bradley Wendt, was using his position to obtain weapons and sell them for personal gain. A jury convicted Wendt earlier this year of conspiracy to defraud the United States, lying to federal law enforcement and illegally possessing a machine gun. Wendt is not remorseful and has appealed his conviction.
“If I'm guilty of this, every policeman in the country will go to jail,” Wendt told CBS News just days before a federal judge sentenced him to 5 years in prison. Wendt's crimes appear to be part of a nationwide pattern.
US District Court, Southern District of Iowa
A CBS News investigation found that dozens of law enforcement leaders – sheriffs, captains, lieutenants, police chiefs – in 23 U.S. states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., from the Deep South illegally possess firearms, even weapons of war. Are also buying and selling. The Midwest, Northeast, and California coast.
A nationwide review of government audits and court records over the past 20 years found at least 50 cases of police illegally selling their weapons online, through dealers, out of their homes or in the back of their cars. In many cases, the weapons were sold to gun enthusiasts, often at prices 10 times their purchased price.
In several cases, the guns ended up in the hands of violent criminals and were used to commit crimes including drug trafficking, international arms trafficking and, in one case, the shooting death of a 14-year-old boy attending a high school football game. He was fatally shot. ,
In 2011, federal agents busted a smuggling ring out of New Mexico that involved a police chief, mayor, and village trustee who transported automatic firearms and tactical gear. a mexican cartel,
A decade later, prosecutors uncovered a multistate conspiracy linking an acknowledged Russian arms dealer with three police chiefs, a sheriff and a Delta Force veteran who sold machine guns directly to a criminal smuggler. They all confessed to their crime. An additional alleged co-conspirator, who worked as an intelligence analyst for the US Department of Homeland Security, has denied wrongdoing and his case is pending trial.
there were approximately 26,000 guns Unearthed from American crime scenes For a government agency, law enforcement or military, between 2017 and 2021, according to the most recently available data, A report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and ExplosivesIt is not known how many of them were lost, stolen or sold. However, when government auditors examined firearms that law enforcement agencies had reported missing over a 15-year period, the General Services Administration got the inspector general More than two-thirds were not missing but were improperly sold or traded – including Uzis and grenade launchers that were never recovered.
Meanwhile, a separate Government Accountability Office audit In 2018 it was found that $100 million worth of guns and ammunition purchased were unaccounted for by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In response, ICE said it would improve the way it tracks its inventory in the future; No follow-up action was taken regarding weapons that were already missing. ICE did not respond to CBS News' request for comment.
Of the 58 cases identified by CBS News where law enforcement officers were criminally charged for illegally selling their weapons, 56 either pleaded guilty or were convicted; Two have denied wrongdoing in the ongoing cases.
These cases are just the tip of the iceberg, according to interviews with a half-dozen former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents who worked directly on these investigations. Several career agents shared anecdotes about police departments giving up their service weapons after repeatedly finding them in the hands of private citizens. According to a 2017 law enforcement memo obtained by CBS News, agents reported that prosecutors have generally been reluctant to bring charges in these cases, and the bureau stated that “It is our goal to educate, not to investigate.”
“We are not looking to prosecute fellow law enforcement officers,” said Eric Harden, former special agent in charge of the ATF's Los Angeles Field Division.
Harden wrote a 2017 memo that noted a “growing trend” of “executives buying and then selling.” [restricted] Firearms…for profit.” The memo warned that anyone doing so was acting as a straw buyer in violation of at least two federal laws.
Harden told CBS News that if officers persist after being warned, or if their weapons are found to be used in connection with a crime, they should be held accountable. “If we don't do that, it would be like turning a blind eye and saying that officers are above the law.”
Harden wrote the memo after his intelligence unit discovered an illegal pistol confiscated from a drug trafficker recently purchased by a beat policeman in Pasadena, California. Harden, now retired, still remembers the officer crying on his shoulder when federal agents came to arrest him for illegally selling more than 100 weapons from his home. The officer argued at the time that he did not know he was breaking the law, but later pleaded guilty. He spent less than a year in federal prison and paid a $10,000 fine but was allowed to keep his Porsche and Alfa Romeo.
US District Court, Central District of California
On the other side of LA County, A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer with a Secret level security clearance, He carried out an even more sinister gun plan that continued for 20 years. that too eventually pleaded guiltyIn 2019, after being busted selling weapons from the trunk of his car by an undercover agent. At that time they had a total of over 250 firearms in their stockpile, including 41 machine guns and two short-barreled rifles.
The officer “betrayed his oath to uphold the laws of the United States just to put more money in his own pocket.” US Attorney said Announcing the news of the officer's prison sentence.
Several cases involved sheriffs and police leadership who used their positions in law enforcement to gain access to explosive devices such as military-grade machine guns, short-barreled rifles, and grenades and then sold them in violation of federal law. Gave.
Although the Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, there are some limits on what types of weapons people are allowed to possess. After 1986, these weapons – known as Class 3/Title II in the ATF and as “Posties” in the gun industry – Restricted to official government use Because of their lethal firepower. Many of them are battlefield weapons used by US and NATO forces in conflict zones. Some ammunition can take out a helicopter or fly through an armored tank directly into a concrete building on the other side, then explode, hitting a target 18 football fields away. These guns can fire hundreds of bullets every minute, faster than the speed of sound.
“Congress knew nearly 100 years ago, in the days of Al Capone, that fully automatic weapons were unusually dangerous,” ATF Director Steven Dettelbach said in a public address on February 28, 2023. “They have no place in our communities.”
However, according to law enforcement records and court filings obtained by CBS News, government loopholes have been exploited by opportunists who recruit law enforcement conspirators to help circumvent the U.S. machine gun prohibition, including among the people Includes text messages, videos, and wiretapped audio conversations. Those who either pleaded guilty or admitted to participating in these schemes.
CBS News found a trail of activity on social media videos and online Web forums, where gun lovers often discussed how to lure law enforcement colleagues into this illegal trade, which can be highly lucrative. Among a series of online conversations reviewed by CBS News, one poster suggested that after law enforcement got a $10,000 machine gun through the federal approval process, it could be priced at $75,000 because it would be free of red tape . For example, Iowa Police Chief Wendt, according to court records, at times earned profit margins in excess of 90%.
Another online user advised, “Here's a description of the guys signing for me, who they went to high school with,” advised, identifying a police chief, a sheriff, a SWAT officer and a deputy sheriff.
For police departments to obtain such high-powered weapons, each requires permission from the ATF. Even though it has been the law for more than three decades, the ATF has begun investigating every machine gun application for the first time in january 2023 To confirm that a legitimate government agency was making the request.
According to interviews with a half-dozen longtime ATF officials who worked directly on these cases, the bureau typically doesn't assess the suitability of weapons for a department or track where they end up.
“There is no audit,” said Tim Grayden, a former supervisory special agent who worked at the ATF for more than two decades before retiring in 2022. “There was no second-guessing. They really weren't – I don't want to use the word concerned, but I can't think of a better word than that.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives declined a request for comment.
It's unclear how widespread this is nationwide, but in Iowa alone over the past five years, the ATF did not reject a single law enforcement request for a machine gun “based on suitability (or lack thereof),” according to court filings. Is. By 2023, there were more than 1,200 machine guns registered for law enforcement across the state.
To find out how it compares to other places, CBS News conducted a series of Freedom of Information Act requests with the ATF for details about the high-powered arsenal it has provided to public law enforcement over the past decade. Filed. However, the Bureau rejected those requests, saying that it believes private tax information is exempt from public disclosure. Last week, CBS News filed a lawsuit seeking information.
The proliferation of this high-powered weapon is likely to become even more relevant when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. During his first administration, Trump canceled an obama-era executive Order Restricting the transfer of military equipment from the Department of Defense to law enforcement nationwide. The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment.
Contributed to this report.