A federal firearms dealer is sentenced to 78 months in prison for his role in trafficking firearms across the border to Mexico.
Timothy Anthony Veninga was the owner of Ballistic Firearms in Tucson.
Veninga and a business partner were involved in a scheme in which they would pay people to fill out gun purchase forms but leave the date and firearm information section blank.
They would then sell guns to other people using the falsified documents and concealing the real purchaser's identities.
Their conspiracy resulted in the illegal sale of at least 31 guns, including seven rifles.
In two of the cases, Veninga and his partner used identities of people who did not consent to be involved, to fraudulently sell guns.
Veninga was sentenced last week on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, aiding and abetting false statements in firearms transactions, false statements to a government agency, tampering, and identity theft.
In July 2017 his partner, Joe Valles, was sentenced to 78 months in prison for his role in the scheme.
