Haitian National Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Firearms Out of the United States
Tampa, FL – Jean Gordy Gedeon (24, Bartow) pled guilty yesterday to smuggling firearms outside of the United States. He faces a maximum penalty of ten years in federal prison.
According to the plea agreement, Gedeon met with a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) undercover agent, on numerous occasions, to discuss the acquisition of firearms. Gedeon admitted to the undercover agent that he was seeking to obtain firearms from the United States for shipment back to Haiti. Subsequently, he arranged to purchase eleven firearms from the undercover agent and placed an order to purchase twenty-eight additional firearms the following month.
On March 30, 2012, Gedeon met with the undercover agent to purchase the eleven firearms he previously ordered. He again confirmed that the firearms were be transported to Haiti. During the transaction, Gedeon was only in possession of a portion of the agreed upon funds. He provided the undercover with $1,100.00 for the purchase of four pistols and a machine gun and was arrested.
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Stacie B. Harris.
It is another case prosecuted as a part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods
program — a nationwide, gun-violence reduction strategy led by ATF. United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill, along with Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge, ATF, is coordinating the Project Safe Neighborhoods effort here in the Middle District of Florida in cooperation with federal, state, and local law enforcement officials.
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