US Army Major convicted for smuggling guns to Ghana in barrels of rice and home goods

A federal jury has found US Army Major Kojo Owusu Dartey, who is presently stationed at Fort Liberty, guilty of several counts of illegal guns dealing, gun delivery without notification to the carrier, smuggling of goods out of the country, and illegal firearm exportation.

In addition, he was accused of conspiring, making false declarations in court, and lying to a US government agency.

When Owusu Dartey, 42, is sentenced on July 23, 2024, he might receive a maximum term of 240 months.

The guns were smuggled into Ghana and hidden within blue barrels of rice and household supplies.

U.S. Attorney Michael Easley stated, “We are working with law enforcement agencies around the world to expose international criminals, from money launderers to rogue international arms traffickers capable of fueling violence abroad.”

This renegade Army Major was found guilty at trial of smuggling firearms into Ghana in blue barrels of rice and household goods thanks to a collaboration with Ghanaian officials.

“I want to thank the Ghana Revenue Authority and the International Cooperation Unit Office of the Attorney-General of Ghana for their assistance in the investigation. I also commend the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attachés to U.S. Embassy Accra and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs of the Department’s Criminal Division for their significant assistance to this prosecution.”

“Far from being a victimless crime, firearms trafficking threatens public safety across our nation and beyond,” said Toni M. Crosby, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF Baltimore Field Division. “The Baltimore Field Division is proud to partner with the Ghana Revenue Authority and ATF’s Charlotte and Louisville Field Divisions for this investigation, which has kept firearms off the streets — preventing them from being used in any number of killings and other crimes — and ended this international firearm trafficking scheme.”

Between June 28 and July 2, 2021, Dartey bought seven firearms in the Fort Liberty region, according to court documents and evidence shown during the trial.

He then assigned a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to buy three firearms from the same location and ship them to Dartey in North Carolina.

The weapons, which included several handguns, an AR-15, 50-round magazines, suppressors, and a battle shotgun, were then all hidden by Dartey into blue barrels hidden behind household items and rice.

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The barrels were then smuggled out of the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, aboard a container ship and transported to the Port of Tema in Ghana.

The guns were retrieved by the Ghana Revenue Authority, who also notified the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division and the DEA attaché in Ghana about the seizure.

Dartey testified concurrently in the U.S. v. Agyapong trial. A case in which Dartey had alerted authorities to a sixteen-defendant marriage fraud scheme involving foreign individuals from Ghana and troops stationed at Fort Liberty.

Dartey lied on the stand and under oath about his sexual contact with a defense witness, as well as to federal law enforcement in the run-up to the trial.

Following Chief U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II’s acceptance of the verdict, Michael Easley, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, made an announcement.

The case was probed by the ATF, the Army Criminal Investigation Division, and the United States Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement.

Assistant US Attorney Gabriel J. Diaz prosecuted the case, with technical help from David Ryan of the DOJ’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

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