(CNN) -- British authorities said Tuesday they are conducting a criminal investigation into an American man charged in federal court with smuggling weapons into England.
Steven Neal Greenoe is suspected of buying more than 60 firearms in North Carolina and transporting them to England on at least nine occasions, according to court documents.
In September, a federal grand jury handed up a 43-count superseding indictment against him. He was arrested in July, when authorities found another 16 firearms in his baggage.
TITAN, a task force in Britain's North West region for serious and organized crimes, said in a statement Tuesday it was also investigating Greenoe.
"This is a complex investigation involving law enforcement agencies across the North West of England," Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Leach, who heads the task force, said in the statement. "We are working closely with our colleagues nationally and with partners in the United States. The availability of firearms poses a serious risk and our investigation will be continuing over the coming weeks and months."
After being brought into the country, allegedly by Greenoe, the firearms were then sold in Britain, court documents said. An undercover police officer bought three of them from two men for 10,500 pounds (about $16,500).
The Times of London reported Tuesday that British and U.S. authorities held crisis talks after Greenoe, 37, was arrested. Some of the firearms are unaccounted for, the Times reported, and of those recovered, ballistics tests show one was used in a drive-by shooting in Manchester, England, in October.
Britain's Home Office said Tuesday it and the government continue "to work very closely with international partners, including counterparts in the United States, on all matters relating to security. Measures to protect the public and tackle the threat posed by terrorism and international crime are constantly kept under review."
Greenoe always flew into Manchester's airport, according to the complaint. Officials there told CNN that arriving passengers are not screened unless they are stopped by customs.
The TSA on Tuesday declined comment on the case, citing pending litigation.
Firearms are not prohibited from checked luggage, according to the TSA's website. However, firearms must be declared to the airline, and the guns must be unloaded and in a hard-sided container.
Firearms may not be taken out of the United States, according to the International Trade in Arms Regulations unless the person carrying them has registered with the State Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls. On July 19, as authorities were investigating Greenoe, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement attache in London told the agency that neither Greenoe nor his company, Jolie Rouge consultants, had been granted an export license from the office.
Greenoe allegedly took the guns overseas by breaking them down into pieces and spreading the pieces over multiple bags in his checked luggage, according to a federal complaint filed in July.
The TSA on Tuesday declined comment on the case, citing pending litigation.
Greenoe's defense attorney, Mark Edwards of Durham, North Carolina, declined comment to CNN on Tuesday. Edwards previously told the Times in the story published Tuesday that "Steve's a bright young man, very sociable, a bright guy, well read, well-educated, well-traveled. He's been all over the world. He's an interesting man to deal with and not my average client at all."
On May 3, according to the complaint, Greenoe was interviewed at the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, airport by TSA officials after a screen of his luggage showed pieces of "multiple firearms."
Greenoe told authorities that "he was a salesman, and that he had just gone to the Raleigh gun show and that the guns were broken down and not in a working order," the complaint said. After checking the serial numbers on the guns, the TSA allowed Greenoe to continue with his flight, according to the complaint.
Authorities believe "Greenoe was attempting to elude law enforcement and U.S. customs officials by stating that the items in his luggage were ... inert and non-working samples," the complaint said. "In fact, these items were fully functional firearms that had been disassembled and disguised to appear as anything but a functional firearm."
A native of New Orleans, Greenoe lived in Shrewsbury, about 70 miles southwest of Manchester, the Times reported.
Confronted and questioned at the Raleigh airport on July 25, Greenoe initially said they were non-working samples that belonged to Jolie Rouge, according to the complaint, but later told authorities that he bought the weapons "as a means to provide high quality firearms to his employees while providing overseas maritime protection," since he could not buy high quality weapons overseas.
Charges against Greenoe include failing to notify a common carrier of arms shipment; exporting firearms from the United States without a license; smuggling firearms outside the United States; and falsifying an ATF form.
In a hearing in July, a federal magistrate declared Greenoe a flight risk and ordered him held. Greenoe waived his appearance on the superseding indictment after it was handed up, according to court records. Several motions in the case were filed under seal in November.
Greenoe is currently being held in the Pitt County Detention Center in Greenville, North Carolina.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve and Antonia Mortensen contributed to this report.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|