If you are in the narcotics business, intimidation is part of doing business.The penalty for falsifying the forms is up to five years' imprisonment and a $5,000 fine.Īlthough Cruse indeed had spent time in a mental hospital, he truthfully answered no, because he had admitted himself. He said, "It is not only that they give you more firepower and larger magazines with up to 30 rounds, but it is also the intimidation factor. "Apparently the reason is that the criminals have a lot of money available to them and they buy high-powered, expensive and exotic firearms. "In the old days you used to always hear about the Saturday Night Specials and other cheap-type handguns, but you don't ever see them anymore (in South Florida)," said Bruce Snyder of ATF. Possession of a fully automatic assault weapon is an essential business asset for drug traffickers who frequently use intimidation tactics to terrorize or eliminate competitors. To many South Florida criminals seeking weapons - particularly drug traffickers - cost is no obstacle, officials say. Subtracting the $50 cost of the mail-order conversion parts, the deal netted Tufaro at least $850. The basic semiautomatic version of the Uzi sells for only $500.
In the Tufaro case, the North Miami gun specialist charged $1,400 for a converted Uzi machine gun. But apparently the risks are often outweighed by the potential profits. Under current law, gun owners face up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines if caught in possession of a converted machine gun. There are risks associated with making such conversions. Army's standard M-16 combat assault rifle. Law-enforcement officials say that in many cases, spare parts can be ordered by mail from gun catalogs for $50 or less to convert, for example, a Colt AR- 14 semiautomatic into the rough equivalent of the U.S.
MAC 11 GUNS FOR SALE INSTALL
It also makes it a relatively simple and inexpensive operation to install the key parts in a semiautomatic weapon, thus converting it to a machine gun. This loophole in the 1986 machine-gun law enables unscrupulous gunsmiths to build machine guns from scratch. The result has been the creation of a thriving illegal conversion business that caters virtually exclusively to criminals, officials say.Īs one federal agent put it: "You can legally buy all the parts (for a machine gun), but if you put them all together, then that is illegal." Nor did the lawmakers seek to limit the availability of the spare parts for machine guns that are typically used to illegally convert semiautomatics into machine guns. were required to register the weapons.ĭespite the ban on new machine guns, Congress did not move to limit the availability of semiautomatic assault weapons. Under the law, owners of existing machine guns in the U.S. These guns can bring as much as $1,000 to $1,200 in Latin America.īlackmarket prices for converted machine guns have remained strong since Congress banned sales of new machine guns in 1986. "A lot of criminals from other areas come to South Florida to acquire them."įederal officials estimate that guns purchased for $300 in South Florida can routinely be resold in the black market for $700 to $900 in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Treasury's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. "South Florida has become an area notorious for these types of weapons," said Joseph Vince of the U.S. By some estimates, South Florida is now the most active black market in assault weapons in the Western Hemisphere. Such conversions and sales - usually taking place a few guns at a time - have grown into an active cottage industry somewhat unique to South Florida, law-enforcement officials say. Federal agents also discovered 22 "switches" used to convert semiautomatic Uzi guns into machine guns. In a separate case in Broward County, a 43-year-old Fort Lauderdale man is facing up to 60 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines in federal court after pleading guilty to maintaining an illegal stockpile of 65 handguns, 35 rifles, 11 machine guns and 17 silencers in his Key Largo Lane home. Federal agents recently raided Commando's Gun Shop in Hialeah, charging the owners with converting and selling two machine guns - a MAC-10 and a KG-9 - to undercover agents.
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