Long Beach Customs and Border Watch Commander pleads guilty for illegal gun business

On Wednesday, July 17, 2019  Wei Xu, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Watch Commander at the Long Beach port was found guilty for running an illegal gun sales operation, hiding information to obtain a security clearance and cheating on his federal income taxes, federal prosecutors said.

Xu admitted in his plea agreement and in an open court hearing that he sold at least 99 firearms without the required federal license between the late 1990s and to date his arrest. To increase the profit margin of his unlawful firearms selling business, Xu exploited his status as a law enforcement officer to purchase and then transfer “off-roster” handguns that cannot be sold to the general public by a federal firearms license (FFL) dealer, according to the plea agreement.

To disclose the money from the illegal gun operation Xu failed to share his foreign financial interests and contacts in China so that he could get a secret-level security clearance. Officials shared: to evade taxes, he incorporated a sham company in Florida through which he claimed fake business losses to offset his income.

United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner has scheduled a January 14, 2020 sentencing hearing, where Xu will face a statutory maximum sentence of 25 years in federal prison. Xu has been in federal custody since his arrest on February 5.

By Scarled Murillo