Shem Wayne Alexander, a 35-year-old from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, pleaded guilty in Tampa federal court to conspiracy to smuggle firearms from the United States to Trinidad and Tobago. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, Alexander faces up to five years in prison.
Alexander was arrested in Jamaica on November 15, 2024, following a U.S. provisional arrest request and was extradited to the United States on December 20, 2024.
Court documents state that between April 2019 and April 2022, Alexander and his co-conspirators illegally exported firearms and related components from Florida to Trinidad and Tobago. Authorities intercepted one shipment at Piarco International Airport in Port of Spain on April 21, 2021. The shipment was described as “household items” but concealed inside two punching bags were eleven 9mm pistols, two .38 caliber revolvers, a semi-automatic shotgun, AR-15 parts including barrels and magazines, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, magazine couplers, and other firearm components. The conspirators did not provide written notice about the true contents of the shipment.
The investigation involved Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), including its Legal Attaché for the Caribbean; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Trinidad and Tobago Police Service; United States Citizenship and Immigration Services; Florida Department of Law Enforcement; United States Customs and Border Protection; as well as support from the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs; Jamaica Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions; and Jamaica Constabulary Force.
Assistant United States Attorneys David W.A. Chee and Adam W. McCall are prosecuting the case.
“This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious transnational criminal organizations.”
