High-Ranking Law Enforcement Sold Weapons Illegally
A CBS News investigation has revealed dozens of law enforcement leaders, ranging from sheriffs to police chiefs, bought and illegally sold firearms, including weapons of war.
A statewide review of government audits and court records from the last 20 year found that there were at least 50 cases of police officers accused of illegally selling their weapons online. In Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and 23 states, weapons were sold to dealers out of the officers’ homes or the back of their cars. In some instances, the weapons were sold to gun enthusiasts for prices 10 times higher than ther original price.
The former chief of police at the Adair Police Department in Iowa, Bradley Wendt, was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison in July 2024 after he was convicted by a federal jury of conspiring to make false statements to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and illegal possession of a machine gun. Prosecutors argued he knowingly used his position of power in the department to acquire machine guns for himself and his for-profit business.
“This chief (of) police gig is awesome,” Wendt wrote in an email to an associate in 2019. “Send machine guns to my own gun store. LOL.”
Red flags were raised after an audit found the small department, consisting of three people to police a town of 794 people, sought to buy 90 machine guns from regulators, including an M134 Gatling-style minigun with the ability to shoot up to 6,000 rounds of ammunition per minute. Wendt wrote close to 40 similar letters with requests to purchase or demonstrate 90 machine guns for the Adair Police Department between July 2018 and August 2022.
Prior to being convicted, Wendt told CBS News, “If I’m guilty of this, every cop in the nation’s going to jail.”
In a number of the cases prompted by the investigation, guns wound up in the hands of violent felons and were used to commit crimes such as international arms dealing and drug trafficking. One weapon was used in a case involving the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old boy attending a high school football game. A police chief, mayor, and village trustee in New Mexico were busted in 2011 for a smuggling ring involving the delivery of automatic firepower and tactical gear to a Mexican cartel.
Years later, more law enforcement officers with high rankings—three police chiefs, one sheriff, and a Delta Force veteran—were caught by prosecutors for being linked with a sanctioned Russian arms dealer who sold machine guns to a criminal trafficker directly. After all pleaded guilty, the name of an alleged co-conspirator then working as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was brought up. However, he denied any wrongdoing.
Close to 26,000 guns from crime scenes in the United States were traced back to a government agency, law enforcement, or the military between 2017 and 2021. Out of the 58 cases listed in the investigation involving law enforcement criminally charged with illegal weapon sales, 56 of them admitted guilt or were convicted.
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