FL High School Teacher Bought Guns For Criminal Organization In Trinidad

TAMPA, FL — A Hillsborough County high school teacher pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy to making false statements to a firearms dealer, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Shannon Lee Samlalsingh, 46, of Tampa faces up to five years in federal prison. Her sentencing date hasn’t been set yet.

In 2020 and 2021, Samlalsingh bought several guns and gun components from federally licensed firearms dealers in Hillsborough and Miami-Dade counties, falsely stating on Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives forms that she was the actual transferee or buyer of the guns, the DOJ said.

In reality, Samlalsingh had received money via international wire transfers from members of a Trinidadian transnational criminal organization with instructions to purchase specific model guns and firearms components, then transfer them to other members of the transnational criminal organization already in Florida, to smuggle them back to Trinidad, the department said.

Samlalsingh kept a percentage of the wire transfer funds as compensation. The guns were smuggled back to Trinidad and Tobago by concealing them in a large wireless speaker and punching bags.

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On April 21, 2021, authorities at the Piarco International Airport in Trinidad and Tobago seized a shipment from the United States containing two punching bags and other goods.

Concealed within the two punching bags were 11 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, 15 .38 caliber rounds, 36 shells, six magazine couplers, and two shotgun chokes, the DOJ said.

Specifically, Samlalsingh purchased a SAR-9 9mm pistol, a Ruger-9 9mm pistol, a Taurus G3 9mm pistol, a Taurus G2C 9mm pistol, which were all traced to the April 21, 2021, seizure in Trinidad and Tobago.

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