Prosecutors accuse Wisconsin police chief in illegal armor-piercing rounds import

Body

Federal prosecutors allege that Jacob and Darin Dowd, brothers who ran a gun dealership in Vacaville, California, helped an illegal import scheme for armor-piercing ammunition by recruiting a Wisconsin police chief to assist with paperwork used to obtain an exception to federal import limits. Prosecutors said the scheme centered on an application to import nearly half a million armor-piercing rounds, and on a purchase order tied to the chief of police in the Town of Linn, a community of about 2,700 people in southeastern Wisconsin.

In online court records, prosecutors said Jacob Dowd submitted an application in June 2021 to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to import about 490,000 armor-piercing rounds from Smart Energeo Sistemi, an arms company based in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Prosecutors said federal law generally bars the importation of such ammunition, but includes an exception for law enforcement agencies.

The prosecutors’ description of the application states that it listed the ammunition as intended for “law enforcement sales,” and included a purchase order for 1.5 million rounds from James Bushey, then chief of police in the Town of Linn. Investigators’ interest, prosecutors said, was apparently sparked by that purchase order, which they described as inconsistent with what prosecutors said Linn’s department could use.

Prosecutors said the ATF ultimately stopped the importation after reviewing the application. In a summary in the charging materials, prosecutors wrote that “TLPD is a small police department,” adding that the department “had no intention to purchase the … ammunition, had no funds to purchase the ammunition, and had no legitimate use for that ammunition,” according to the court records cited in the Associated Press report.

Prosecutors allege that the Dowds approached Bushey using a Wisconsin resident as a middleman. The court documents identify that person only as J.W., and prosecutors’ allegations in the AP account note that news outlets reported the individual was one of Bushey’s former roommates.

According to prosecutors, the brothers told Bushey that if he signed what they described as a fake purchase order backing up their import application, they would give him money to buy squad cars and other equipment that would help advance his career. Prosecutors said Bushey agreed, creating a fraudulent order on department letterhead.

A search warrant, as described in the AP report, said the town board signed off on the deal after Bushey told board members that the Dowds would donate the ammunition to the police department. Prosecutors said Bushey did not tell the board that he would receive payments for submitting the fraudulent purchase order.

The AP report said prosecutors further alleged that the Dowds intended to sell the ammunition to “other buyers,” while noting that the court documents do not disclose the alleged buyers’ names and do not suggest the ammunition was meant to be used in an attack.

Darin Dowd was charged with conspiracy last July and pleaded guilty in October, according to the AP report. The reporting also said Jacob Dowd was charged with conspiracy last week and has agreed to plead guilty during a May 19 hearing, citing an online plea agreement and court schedule. Both defendants, prosecutors said, face up to five years in federal prison.

The AP report said Darin Dowd’s attorney, Julian Linnen, and Jacob Dowd’s attorney, Paul Jannuzzo, did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. It also said Bushey has not been charged, and that the interim police chief, Graham Gunyon, said Bushey left the department of his own accord and declined to comment on Bushey’s alleged role or on what Bushey told the town board.

At the federal level, the AP report said Steve Caballero, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Milwaukee, declined to comment on whether Bushey is under investigation, and an FBI spokesperson did not immediately reply to a message.