A Canadian man is facing federal charges in Vermont for allegedly smuggling about 100 handguns into Quebec that had been stashed in a library straddling the international border.
Alexis Vlachos, 40, of Montreal, was recently extradited to Vermont, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office, after indictment by a grand jury in 2015.
Vlachos allegedly worked with two others between July 2010 and April 2011 to buy some 100 handguns from firearms dealers in Florida.
The others allegedly filled out paperwork saying they were buying the guns for themselves, when they were buying them for Vlachos, according to the release.
According to the indictment, in March 2011 two people cooperating with Vlachos went to Haskell Free Library in Derby Line, a public library that straddles the U.S.-Canada border.
They allegedly hid a backpack that held multiple handguns in the library bathroom, then left.
Vlachos, who was already in the library, removed the backpack from the bathroom, left the library through the entrance, which is in Vermont, and promptly walked across the border into Canada, according to authorities. He allegedly did not go through a port of entry.
The five-count indictment also includes two counts that Vlachos exported guns without permission and two counts that he possessed firearms while in the country illegally.
In a hearing in federal court in Burlington on June 5, Vlachos pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to court records. He remains detained pending a trial.
One woman accused of working with Vlachos pleaded guilty to making false statements to gun dealers and to exporting guns without legal permission, according to the release. She is due to be sentenced in July.
