Leader of Transnational Criminal Organization Extradited from Jamaica Sentenced to 57 Months in Federal Prison for Conspiracy to Smuggle Firearms to Trinidad and Tobago

Tampa, Florida - Shem Wayne Alexander (36, Port of Spain, Trinidad) has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge John L. Badalamenti to four years and nine months in federal prison for conspiracy to smuggle firearms from the United States to Trinidad and Tobago. The court also ordered Alexander to forfeit firearms seized during the offense. Alexander previously pleaded guilty. United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.

According to the plea agreement and court records, between April 2019 and April 2022, Alexander and his co-conspirators unlawfully exported firearms, firearms components (including upper/lower receivers and gun parts kits), and related items from Florida to Trinidad and Tobago. Alexander is a national of Trinidad and Tobago. In total, more than 200 firearms were smuggled from the United States into Trinidad and Tobago.

On April 21, 2021, members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and Customs and Excise Division at the Piarco International Airport in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, seized a shipment containing two punching bags.

X-ray photo of one of the punching bags showing the firearms and firearm components concealed inside.

One of the punching bags cut open.

Trinidad and Tobago Police Service revealing the hidden firearms components.

Concealed firearms, firearms components, and ammunition retrieved from the punching bags.

Alexander and his co-conspirators had sent the shipment from the United States to Trinidad and Tobago describing the contents of said shipment as "household items." In reality, concealed within the two punching bags were approximately eleven 9mm pistols, two .38 caliber special revolvers, a 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun, three AR-15 barrel foregrips, 19 lower pistol grip assemblies, 11 forearm bolt assemblies, three AR-15-style barrels with forearm grips, 32 AR-15 magazines, one AR-15 drum magazine, 470 rounds of AR-15 ammunition, 34 9mm magazines, three 9mm drum magazines, 284 9mm rounds, fifteen .38 caliber rounds, 36 shells, six magazine couplers, and two shotgun chokes. Alexander and his co-conspirators arranged this shipment without written notice to the shipper as to the contents of the shipment.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, including HSI's Attaché, Caribbean, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with assistance provided by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (Transnational Organized Crime Unit and Special Investigations Unit), United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the United States Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement. The Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs, the Jamaica Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Jamaica Constabulary Force provided critical support in the extradition of Alexander. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Adam W. McCall.