Illegally Imported Firearms Seized

Federal agents and Huntington Beach police have seized 410 illegally imported Chinese machine guns, authorities said Monday.

The importer, who is federally licensed to import legal weapons, was neither arrested nor identified by federal officials, but police sources said the seizure took place at a commercial building in an industrial area.

Worth an estimated $143,000, the imported guns are incomplete Chinese copies of the former Soviet Union’s AK-47 assault rifle, which can be easily converted to fully automatic capability, said U.S. Customs Agent Joseph Charles.

Such weapons have been illegal in the United States since 1989. Converted rifles with machine-gun fittings are subject to seizure and forfeiture and the owner may face a maximum $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison.

John D’Angelo, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, explained that the seizure was part of “an ongoing investigation, which may result in an arrest or arrests in the future.”

In March, the Treasury Department announced a crackdown on such weapons, telling importers their import licenses were being suspended and private owners to contact their suppliers to dispose of the weapons.

Federal Customs officials and their counterparts from Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms learned of the arms shipment to Huntington Beach from a confidential source, Charles said, after they reached the Port of Los Angeles. When the search was conducted in Huntington Beach on Feb. 11, agents found 404 of the rifles, three conversion units and two folding blade daggers designed to fire .22-caliber bullets from the handle, Charles said. As a result of the search, six more rifles were seized at another location, he said.

Importing convertible weapons from China was the subject of an NBC-TV newsmagazine “Dateline” segment.