Jerome Man Involved with Gun Smuggling Case

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — Two men have pleaded guilty in North Dakota to charges they smuggled guns into Canada. Federal prosecutors in Fargo say a 29-year-old Canadian, Shawn Hartnell, of Fort Frances, Ontario, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to export firearms illegally.

Twenty-year-old Dylan Dowton, of Jerome, Idaho, pleaded guilty to aiding Hartnell in illegally obtaining guns. The Grand Forks Herald reports Hartnell had been smuggling firearms into Canada for more than a year. According to the indictment, Hartnell sent Dowton $10,000 to buy guns in Idaho and deliver them to Grand Forks.

Hartnell then sold six semi-automatic weapons for $24,000 to undercover U.S. and Canadian agents posing as Canadian buyers last February in the parking lot of the Settle Inn hotel in Grand Forks.