Date: Tue, 16 MAY
95 09:48:51
U.S. Customs have admittedly made arrangements to
return at least 21 MILLION rounds of 7.62x39 ammunition
to the Santa Clara Importer, Eagle Exim Inc. after
seizing 75 million rounds in a raid a few weeks ago.
Customs and ATF agents made a splashy
and well publicized raid on the company, based in
Santa Clara, CA, when they seized 75 million rounds
of "assault weapon ammo".
KGO news (ABC affiliate in SF Bay Area) made much of
the "feared link" that Eagle Exim was "selling guns
and ammo to militias" - a baseless comment which was
floated by some of the federal agents after the raid,
since Eagle Exim was a wholesaler of ammunition and
firearms.
Customs Agent Ron Klink was quoted as stating that
'this was the biggest raid and seizure in the history
of the dept.' and noted the huge size of the ammunition
supply. It is noteworthy that Eagle Exim is one of
the biggest suppliers of ammunition to WHOLESALERS
in the U.S. thus there is nothing nefarious about that
figure.
After speaking to representatives
of Eagle Exim a few days after the raid, their attorneys
believe that the entire shipment will have to be
returned within a few weeks, since this entire incident,
in their view, was unfounded. All of the ammunition
was clearly marked "made
in Russia" though US Customs has maintained that the
ammunition was made in China - a country which Clinton
banned importation of ammo and arms from early last
year. All of this ammunition, was previously inspected
and approved by Customs when it was received in smaller
shipments, during the latter part of 1994 and early
1995.
Lots more on this situation in 1995 at elfie.org |
