Lilburn Man Sentenced for Gun Smuggling

Olamide Ogunyale of Lilburn was given eight months in a federal prison for attempting to smuggle firearms to Nigeria, the U.S. Attorneys Office said Monday.

Ogunyale agreed in April 2011 to help someone ship 12 guns and vehicles to Nigeria, telling the person that no paperwork would be needed for the firearms because they would be hidden inside the cars. He told the person how to hide the guns so that they wouldn't be found by U.S. Customs, the office said in an emailed press release.

In May 2011, Ogunyal arranged to have the behicles delivered to the Port of Savannah and loaded onto a ship bound for Nigeria. Ogunyal completed the Shipper's Export Declaration paperwork, a form used to declare items being exported, without declaring hte firearms.

"By breaking the export laws of the United States, this defendant could have endangered the lives of countless people once these weapons reached the black market in Nigeria," Brock D. Nicholson, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, said in the release.

Ogunyal operated a company that shipped items overseas from the U.S., and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had gotten information that the 53-year-old would ship "anything, including firearms, to other countries," the release said.

The case was investigated by special agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Department of Homeland Security.