A United States Army Major, Kojo Owusu Dartey, currently assigned to Fort Liberty, has been found guilty by a federal jury on multiple charges of dealing in firearms without a license, delivering firearms without notice to the carrier, smuggling goods from the United States and illegally exporting firearms without a license.
He was also charged with making false statements to an agency of the United States, making false declarations before the court, and conspiracy.
42-year-old Kojo Owusu Dartey, faces a maximum penalty of 240 months when sentenced on July 23, 2024. The firearms which were concealed within blue barrels of rice and household goods were smuggled to Ghana. US authorities say, they are partnering, law enforcement agencies across the globe to expose international criminals – from money launderers to rogue international arms traffickers capable of fueling violence abroad.
According to court records and evidence, between June 28 and July 2, 2021, Mr. Dartey, purchased seven firearms in the Fort Liberty area. The records also indicate that, the convict asked an Army Staff Sergeant at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to purchase three firearms there and send them to Dartey in North Carolina.
The Army Major, then hid all the firearms, including multiple handguns, an AR15, 50-round magazines, suppressors, and a combat shotgun inside blue barrels underneath rice and household goods and smuggled the barrels out of the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, on a container ship to the Port of Tema in Ghana.
The Ghana Revenue Authority recovered the firearms and reported the seizure to the DEA attaché in Ghana and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division. At the same time, Dartey was a witness in the trial of U.S. v. Agyapong.
A case that involved a 16-defendant marriage fraud scheme between soldiers on Fort Liberty and foreign nationals from Ghana that Dartey had tipped off officials to. In preparation for the trial, Dartey lied to federal law enforcement about his sexual relationship with a defence witness and lied on the stand and under oath about the relationship. Sentencing is scheduled for a later date.
