By A United States Army Major, Kojo Owusu Dartey, currently stationed at Fort Liberty, has been convicted by a federal jury on multiple charges. These include dealing in firearms without a license, delivering firearms without notice to the carrier, smuggling goods from the United States, and illegally exporting firearms without a license.
Additionally, he faced charges of making false statements to a US agency, making false declarations before the court, and conspiracy. At 42 years old, Owusu Dartey faces a maximum penalty of 240 months when sentenced on July 23, 2024.
The firearms, concealed within blue barrels containing rice and household goods, were smuggled to Ghana.
“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.”
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, between June 28 and July 2, 2021, Dartey purchased seven firearms in the Fort Liberty area. He also tasked a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to buy three firearms there and send them to Dartey in North Carolina.
Subsequently, Dartey 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 then 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. Concurrently, Dartey served as a witness in the trial of U.S. v. Agyapong.
This case involved a 16-defendant marriage fraud scheme between soldiers on Fort Liberty and foreign nationals from Ghana, which Dartey had alerted officials to. In the lead-up to the trial, Dartey misled federal law enforcement about his sexual relationship with a defense witness and provided false testimony under oath about the relationship.
Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, announced after Chief U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II accepted the verdict.
The ATF, Army Criminal Investigation Division and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gabriel J. Diaz prosecuted it with technical assistance from David Ryan, DOJ Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
