Ghanaian pleads guilty to illegally exporting firearms from USA to Ghana

Columbia, Maryland – Eric Nana Kofi Ampong Coker, a Ghanaian residing in Columbia, Maryland, has admitted his guilt in illegally exporting firearms to Ghana from the United States of America.

The United States Attorney’s Office of the District of Maryland confirmed that on Thursday, June 8, 2023, Ampong Coker confessed to unlawfully exporting firearms to Ghana without the necessary license or written authorization for the exportation of these weapons.

According to the district attorney’s office, Ampong Coker has acquired a minimum of 81 firearms from three different Maryland Federal Firearms Licensees (“FFLs”) since 2017.

The office further revealed that in 2019, the accused individual obtained a Regulated Firearms Collector status from the Maryland State Police, which exempted him from the restriction on the number of firearms he could purchase within a 30-day period.

“In May 2021, federal agents closely monitored Ampong Coker as he retrieved firearms purchased from one of the FFLs. He was then observed at various locations, including a business involved in packaging and shipping items from the Port of Baltimore. On May 27, 2021, a shipping vehicle was seen departing from that location. Two days later, on May 29, 2021, Ampong Coker was searched while departing the United States from Detroit, Michigan, en route to Ghana. Among the items seized from his luggage were foam cutouts used to secure and package firearms in gun cases,” stated the district attorney’s office.

“In early June 2021, agents from HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) identified a shipping container scheduled to depart from the Port of Baltimore to Tema, Ghana, on June 14, 2021. The container’s listed contents included a 2018 Toyota Corolla registered to Ampong Coker.”

On June 8, 2021, HSI, ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives), CBP, and other agents searched the contents of the shipping container. In the trunk of the 2018 Toyota Corolla, which had the defendant’s name written on cardboard placed on top of the vehicle, agents discovered a gray suitcase. Concealed within the lining of the suitcase, they found five 9mm handguns that had been previously purchased by Ampong Coker, according to a statement released by the state attorney’s office.

U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron stated that Ampong Coker could face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for illegally exporting firearms when he appears in court on September 6, 2023.

Read the full statement issued by the US attorney’s office below:

Read the full story originally published on June 8, 2023 by www.justice.gov

–The Post Ghana