New Jersey Man Pleads Guilty for Trying to Sell $300K Worth of Guns Reportedly Belonging to Family of Saddam Hussein
A New Jersey man on Wednesday pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport stolen firearms after prosecutors accused him of scheming to sell guns said to have belonged to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's family.
The Associated Press reports Carlos Manuel Quirola stored the weapons in Florida and had them shipped to the Garden State, where he was looking to find a buyer, prosecutors said. U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden set a June 1 sentencing date for the 58-year-old man, according to the Cliffview Pilot.
The collection included two Korth .357-caliber magnum revolvers with gold inlays, black finishes and wood grips; two Cosmi 12-gauge shotguns; and a Chinese State Factories .32-caliber semiautomatic pistol featuring a Yemeni flag icon and Arabic writing.
Two other guns -- an American-made Coonan Arms .357-caliber semiautomatic pistol and a hand-engraved Llama .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol with gold leaf and gold inlays -- bore the initials "QS," believed to be a reference to Hussein's son, Qusay, who had been appointed as his father's heir apparent in 2000.
The entire collection is valued at approximately $300,000. The guns were seized in December 2012, eight months after federal agents got a tip that "valuable firearms allegedly belonging to members of the family of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein were available for sale," U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.
"The weapons were kept in Florida while attempts were made by Ryan, Quirola-Ordonez and others to find buyers in New Jersey," Fishman said. "During the course of the conspiracy, seven firearms -- which were appraised as a collection to be worth between $250,000 to $350,000 -- were shipped to New Jersey for viewing by potential buyers."
Two other men also charged in the scheme, Karlo Sauer and Howard Blumenthal, have also pleaded guilty. The trial of a fourth, Florida resident David Ryan, is set to begin in May.
Saddam Hussein, who ruled Iraq from 1979 to 2003, was known as an avid gun aficionado. Following the U.S.-led invasion, the dictator was tried by an Iraqi tribunal and then executed on Dec. 30, 2006. Qusay, his second son, died in July 2003 in a gun battle with American troops.
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