New York, May 11 (IANS) With strict gun laws in Canada, smuggling weapons from the United States is a lucrative business for criminals, and a Pakistani national is now in a United States jail after he was caught because of a fake driving licence from his country hidden in his buttocks.
The fake licence tipped off New York State troopers during a traffic stop who, aided by a dog, unearthed a cache of 89 weapons, 17 of them stolen, headed for Canada on Thursday, officials said.
They arrested Faizan Ali, the Pakistani national with the fake licence, and two Canadians, and charged them with attempting to smuggle those firearms into Canada, New York Federal Prosecutor Jay Clayton said.
They were produced before Federal Magistrate Judge Judith McCarthy in a suburban New York court and detained.
“These three defendants, including two foreign nationals, allegedly endangered our communities as they attempted to smuggle 89 firearms, 17 of which were stolen, into Canada,” said James Barnacle Jr., a Federal Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director.
Unlike the United States, where gun control laws are fragmented with varying degrees of strictness according to state regulations, Canada has strict federal laws that outlawed the sale and transfer of handguns in 2022 and several categories of firearms in 2024.
Gun smuggling from the United States has become a major threat to Canada, where gun deaths are about two per 100,000 people, compared to nearly six in the United States.
Prosecutors said the Ford Explorer sports utility vehicle in which the men were travelling was stopped because of traffic violations on a New York state road that connects to a federal highway leading to Buffalo across the Niagara region from Canada.
Ali, 25, and the two Canadians, Malik Bromfield and Kamal Salman, both 22, gave evasive and contradictory answers to questions, and Ali agreed to a search, prosecutors said.
During the search, a trooper recovered the licence issued by Pakistan to an Afghan national that was hidden in Ali’s buttocks, according to officials.
Tipped off by it, the troopers brought in a police dog, which indicated the presence of contraband, and they found a heavy suitcase containing firearms, prosecutors said.
–IANS
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