An ex-Arizona border patrol officer is accused of illegally selling over 300 firearms, and making over $100,000 in profit – all from the comfort of his own home.
A federal grand jury indicted Lawrence Myers of one charge of engaging in the business of dealing firearms without a license.
The case is still ongoing, and as of Friday, federal prosecutor Lori Price and defense lawyer Jean-Jacques Cabou were working on a plea agreement.
The 54-year-old joined Border Patrol in 1988, and at the time of the sales, he was stationed in Nogales – nearly 180 miles southeast of Phoenix.
The Border Patrol's Tuscan Sector told Arizona Daily Star that Myers was no longer working at the agency, but didn't specify whether he was fired or resigned.
The investigation of the 54-year-old first began in 2016 when a Tuscan bank notified the U.S. Attorney's office of suspicious activity in Myers' account, according to an Arizona Daily Star report.
Myers deposited nearly $27,000 into personal checks, money orders, and cashier's checks between June and July of 2016, bank records show.
Some of the check's memo lines read of firearm models and a fire auction website. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives checked their dealer database to find that Myers did not have a license.
ATF agents reviewed Myers' bank records and found he made over $200,000 in firearms-related sales from December 2013 to October 2016. Myers turned a profit of about $132,000 on those sales, according to the affidavit.
Despite being postponed six times, court records show that Myers has a tentative court appearance on Jan. 8.
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