Gun smuggler sentenced to 20 months

By Ken Johnston
Editor

After pleading guilty in July to a charge of conspiring to export firearms from the United States to Canada Shawn James Hartnell, 30, of Fort Frances (formerly of Rainy River) was sentenced on October 17, 2013 in Fargo, North Dakota.
Hartnell agreed to a plea deal with U.S. federal prosecutors who recommended him getting a break on a possible five year sentence.
According to Sgt. Rob Lockhart of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Hartnell, “Received a sentence of 20 months custody and two years probation.”
Hartnell was arrested in February after allegedly selling six guns to undercover officers for $24,000. According to the Associated Press in February, “Court documents say the 29 year old Hartnell told undercover Canadian detectives last April that he could get them assault rifles for $4,000 and bring them into Canada by snowmobile.”
Also pleading guilty in July was Dylan Dowton of Jerome, Idaho. He plead guilty to aiding Hartnell in obtaining guns.
Hartnell had wired Dowton $10,000 to have him purchase the guns for him as he could not buy them himself.
In Feb. Dowton, 20, met up with Hartnell in Grand Forks where the latter inspected the weapons. The pair then drove separately to a hotel to meet up with the undercover officers. Once the money and weapons were exchanged arrests were made.
The same day Hartnell was arrested in the U.S. the RCMP also arrested Hartnell’s step-brother, Thomas Peter Atkinson, 23, (also a former Rainy River resident) in Fort Frances in connection with the same investigation. Atkinson is currently free on $3,000 bail while facing 27 charges laid by RCMP Customs and Excise Section under Criminal Code of Canada.
According to the Winnipeg Free Press, Atkinson won access, in July, to edited versions of wiretap warrants police obtained in the investigation in order to better fight his case properly. The Free Press also said that part of Atkinson’s bail conditions include not owning or possessing any weapons or having any contact with Hartnell.
The RCMP has also issued a Canadian warrant for the arrest of Hartnell for the same 27 charges as Atkinson, as well as eight additional charges.
Sgt. Lockhart said last week, “With respect to when Mr. Hartnell will face the charges in Canada, that is something that is done in consultation with Manitoba Public Prosecutions. (But) I do not have a time frame of when the consultations will take place.”