A 26-year-old Chinese national pleaded guilty yesterday in Brooklyn federal court to participating in a scheme to illegally smuggle guns from New York into mainland China.
Zhifu Lin, 26, who was living in West Virginia when he was arrested last spring, pleaded guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act and engaging in illegal weapons trafficking.
Brooklyn federal Prosecutors say Lin partnered with Joseph Debose, a staff sergeant in US National Guard Special Forces staff sergeant Unit in North Carolina who has already pleaded guilty to smuggling charges that he smuggled several shipments of firearms from the US to China — with some shipments from a firm located in Queens.
Only a few weeks after Lin and Debose were charged by the feds in Brooklyn federal court, dozens of people were arrested in a half-dozen cities scattered across central and eastern China and accused of gun trafficking by Chinese authorities.
Experts say that firearms are strictly controlled in China.
Lin faces up to 25 years in prison.