Inside the backpack were 15 handguns — enough to send scores of people to the morgue.
Destination: Canada.
Cops say they have arrested yet another Canadian suspected of trying to smuggle a small arsenal into the country.
According to an affidavit filed by a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent, Canadian William McDonald told officials he was smuggling guns from the U.S. into Canada.
McDonald’s age and hometown are unknown at this time.
The ATF said McDonald entered the United States on July 15 via Niagara Falls, N.Y. Later the next afternoon, an ATF agent spotted McDonald entering the parking lot of a Cumming, Georgia Publix supermarket.
There, the Canadian allegedly met with another person before proceeding to an area in the parking lot where a gray backpack had been ditched. McDonald retrieved it and put it on the seat beside him.
As he tried to drive away, ATF agents swarmed his vehicle and recovered the backpack.
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Inside were 13 Taurus and two Glock handguns, according to the affidavit.
McDonald allegedly told investigators that he entered the U.S. as a mule to pick up the guns at the request of another Canadian man.
“McDonald said that (the other man) had given him approximately $2,000 to make the trip and believed that he would receive an additional sum of money later,” according to the affidavit.
Investigators say it wasn’t MacDonald’s first rodeo: he told them he had smuggled guns into Canada on two previous occasions. On this ill-fated trek, he was allegedly to deliver the weapons to an unidentified person in Monroe County near Rochester.
He has been charged with federal gun trafficking laws and is being held by the U.S. Marshals.
Earlier this year, Badri Mohamed, 37, of Ottawa, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the first degree after he was nabbed near Rochester with a duffel bag packed with 58 semi-automatic handguns and high-capacity magazines.
Mohamed claimed a mystery gangster named “Ahmed” forced him to do the run. The accused smuggler said he feared for his life.
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