A United States Army Major from Ghana, Kojo Owusu Dartey, currently stationed at Fort Liberty, has been convicted by a federal jury on multiple charges related to firearms dealing and smuggling.
Kojo Owusu Dartey, age 42, faces a maximum penalty of 240 months when sentenced on July 23, 2024, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.
According to court records and trial evidence, Dartey purchased seven firearms in the Fort Liberty area between June 28 and July 2, 2021.
Additionally, he enlisted a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to buy three firearms and send them to Dartey in North Carolina.
Dartey then concealed all the firearms, including multiple handguns, an AR15, 50-round magazines, suppressors, and a combat shotgun, inside blue barrels under rice and household goods. He smuggled these barrels out of the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, on a container ship bound for the Port of Tema in Ghana.
The Ghana Revenue Authority discovered 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. U.S. Attorney Michael Easley for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced the verdict after Chief U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II accepted it.
The case was investigated by the ATF, Army Criminal Investigation Division, and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gabriel J. Diaz prosecuted the case with technical assistance from David Ryan of the DOJ Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
“We are partnering with law enforcement agencies across the globe to expose international criminals – from money launderers to rogue international arms traffickers capable of fueling violence abroad,” said U.S Attorney Michael Easley.
“Through a partnership with Ghanaian officials, this rogue Army Major was convicted at trial after smuggling guns to Ghana in blue barrels of rice and household goods. I want to thank the Ghana Revenue Authority and the International Cooperation Unit Office of the Attorney-General of Ghana for their assistance in the investigation. I also commend the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attachés to U.S. Embassy Accra and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs of the Department’s Criminal Division for their significant assistance to this prosecution.”
“Far from being a victimless crime, firearms trafficking threatens public safety across our nation and beyond,” said Toni M. Crosby, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF Baltimore Field Division.
“The Baltimore Field Division is proud to partner with the Ghana Revenue Authority and ATF’s Charlotte and Louisville Field Divisions for this investigation, which has kept firearms off the streets — preventing them from being used in any number of killings and other crimes — and ended this international firearm trafficking scheme.”
In a surprising turn of events, it was discovered that Dartey lied on the stand about his sexual relationship with a defense witness while serving as a witness in the trial of U.S. v. Agyapong.
This trial involved a marriage fraud scheme between soldiers on Fort Liberty and foreign nationals from Ghana.