An ex-Ohio Police chief used his badge to criminally profit in a machine gun trafficking plot focused on reselling more than 200 weapons, district attorneys stated. Dorian LaCourse was sentenced to 3 years of probation for his function in purchasing fully automatic machine guns that were then resold at a much greater cost, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana said.
LaCourse, who previously oversaw a Police department in a small Ohio town, will spend 6 of those months under house arrest.
Federal laws prohibit the purchase or transfer of fully automatic machine guns unless for police, an exception LaCourse, 66, made use of.
Dealing with 2 federally certified Indiana weapon dealerships, LaCourse signed several letters that wrongly specified the Village of Addyston Police Department wished to purchase various kinds of machine guns, including military grade.
Those letters were then sent out to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives by co-conspirators Johnathan Marcum, 34, and Christopher Petty, 58, to get the weapons. The two males were expected to provide the department presentations with the weapons, however, never ever did.
LaCourse likewise straight purchased German-made machine gun that he stated were spent for by his department, however were rather acquired by Marcum and Petty.
The machine gun were resold for 5 or 6 times the purchase cost, the United States Attorney’s Office stated.
Marcum and Petty pleaded guilty to charges associated with the plan and will be sentenced at a later date.
LaCourse initially dealt with 17 charges linked to the criminal offense, however wound up pleading guilty to 3 of them in April, according to Fox 19. District attorneys asked for 6 years in prison as part of the plea deal, the tv station reported.
More than 200 machine guns were unlawfully gotten and authorities took more than 100 machine guns, 52,500 rounds of ammo, and $6,000 in cash linked to the criminal activity from LaCourse’s office desk, the feds stated.
LaCourse was the only full-time officer for a town of about 1,000 individuals.
“Law enforcement officers are sworn to protect our communities and uphold the law, and the public has a right to expect police powers are used for the public good,” said US Attorney Zachary Myers, in a statement.
“Instead, the defendant sold his badge to facilitate a criminal machine gun trafficking conspiracy. With heartbreaking regularity, we see the carnage that criminals can inflict on our communities with weapons of war. Today’s sentence demonstrates that officers who violate the public’s trust with utter disregard for the public’s safety will be held accountable.”
LaCourse gathered more than $11,500 from his part of the business. As part of the sentencing, he was fined $11,800.
An AFT representative called the plot an “egregious betrayal of the public’s trust.”
“LaCourse committed an egregious betrayal of the public’s trust by engaging in this machine gun trafficking scheme,” said AFT’s acting special agent in charge Travis S. Riddle, of the Columbus division. “I hope that this sentence serves as an example to anyone else out there who might be tempted to betray their oath of office and their responsibility to their community.”
