Tampa High School Teacher Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Provide Firearms to Trinidad-Based Transnational Criminal Organization
TAMPA, Fla. – Hillsborough County high school teacher Shannon Lee Samlalsingh, 46, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to making false statements to a firearms dealer. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services assisted in the investigation.
The U.S. Attorney announced that, in 2020 and 2021, Samlalsingh purchased several firearms and firearm components from federally licensed firearms dealers in Hillsborough County and Miami-Dade County. She falsely stated on ATF 4473 forms that she was the actual transferee or buyer of said firearms. In reality, Samlalsingh received money via international wire transfers from members of a Trinidadian transnational criminal organization with instructions to purchase specific model firearms and firearm components. She then transferred them to other members of the transnational criminal organization in Florida to smuggle them to Trinidad. Samlalsingh kept a percentage of the wire transfer funds as compensation. The firearms were smuggled to Trinidad and Tobago by concealing them in a large wireless speaker and in punching bags.
On or about April 21, 2021, authorities at Piarco International Airport in Trinidad and Tobago seized a shipment from the United States containing two punching bags that concealed multiple firearms, accessories, and ammunition. Samlalsingh purchased a SAR-9 9mm pistol, a Ruger-9 9mm pistol, a Taurus G3 9mm pistol, and a Taurus G2C 9mm pistol that were all traced to this seizure.
Samlalsingh faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with assistance from the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of National Security (Transnational Organized Crime Unit), Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (Special Investigations Unit), USCIS, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David W.A. Chee and Adam W. McCall.
This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.
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