Shem Wayne Alexander, a 35-year-old national of Trinidad and Tobago, pleaded guilty in Tampa federal court to conspiracy to smuggle firearms from the United States to Trinidad and Tobago. Alexander faces up to five years in federal prison. He was arrested in Jamaica on November 15, 2024, following a U.S. provisional arrest request and extradited to the United States on December 20, 2024.
According to court documents, Alexander and his co-conspirators exported firearms and related components from Florida to Trinidad and Tobago between April 2019 and April 2022. Authorities said that on April 21, 2021, officials at Piarco International Airport in Port of Spain seized a shipment sent by Alexander’s group from the United States. The shipment was declared as “household items” but concealed inside two punching bags were eleven 9mm pistols, two .38 caliber special revolvers, a semi-automatic shotgun, AR-15 parts including barrels and magazines, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, magazine couplers, and shotgun chokes.
The conspirators did not provide written notice to the shipper about the true contents of the shipment.
The investigation involved Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), HSI’s Legal Attaché for the Caribbean, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), with support from several agencies including the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (Transnational Organized Crime Unit and Special Investigations Unit), United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and United States Customs and Border Protection. The Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs coordinated with Jamaican authorities during Alexander’s extradition process.
Assistant United States Attorneys David W.A. Chee and Adam W. McCall are prosecuting the case.
“This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious transnational criminal organizations.”
