A Florida man who fueled an international firearms smuggling ring with guns he illegally purchased at South Florida gun shows, through straw buyers, has been sentenced to 200 months in federal prison.
Mackenzie Delmas, 27, pled guilty in May 2021 to numerous federal offenses, including conspiracy, firearms smuggling, straw purchasing of firearms, possession of firearms by a convicted felon, and possession with intent to distribute MDMA.
Delmas was a convicted felon during the conspiracy, which operated from about 2018 to 2019. Unable to buy firearms himself due to his prior conviction, Delmas deployed straw buyers to gun shows throughout South Florida to buy firearms on his behalf.
The straw buyers would falsely represent to the federally licensed firearms dealers at the shows that the firearms were for them, when in fact they were for Delmas.
In a little over one year, Delmas obtained 25 firearms through straw buyers. In September 2018, Canadian law enforcement intercepted some of these guns as they were being smuggled from New York to Canada.
In November 2019, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police seized another gun connected to Delmas during a criminal investigation.
Delmas was one of seven defendants convicted and sentenced in the Southern District of Florida in this matter. Two additional defendants, Shalena Mary Haynes and Enza Esposito, are fugitives.
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