A U.S. Army Major, Kojo Owusu Dartey, faces a maximum sentence of 240 months in prison following a guilty verdict for smuggling firearms to Ghana concealed within barrels of rice and household items. The verdict was delivered by a federal jury at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Dartey, currently stationed at Fort Liberty, was found guilty of multiple charges including dealing in firearms without a license, delivering firearms without notice to the carrier, smuggling goods from the United States, illegally exporting firearms without a license, making false statements to a U.S. agency, making false declarations before the court, and conspiracy.
According to court records, Dartey acquired firearms in June and July 2021, purchasing seven firearms in the Fort Liberty area and orchestrating the procurement of three additional firearms by a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. These firearms, including handguns, an AR15, 50-round magazines, suppressors, and a combat shotgun, were concealed within blue barrels underneath rice and household goods.
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The smuggled barrels were then transported from the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, to the Port of Tema in Ghana. Ghanaian authorities, alerted by the Ghana Revenue Authority, discovered the firearms and reported the seizure to the DEA attaché in Ghana and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division.
In a concerning revelation, it was disclosed that Dartey, concurrently serving as a witness in the trial of *U.S. v. Agyapong,* was involved in a 16-defendant marriage fraud scheme between soldiers at Fort Liberty and foreign nationals from Ghana, which he had informed officials about. Further, Dartey was found to have lied to federal law enforcement about his sexual relationship with a defense witness and perjured himself on the stand regarding the same.
Dartey’s sentencing is scheduled for July 23. U.S. Attorney Michael Easley emphasized the collaborative efforts with international law enforcement agencies, particularly with Ghanaian officials, to expose and prosecute individuals engaged in transnational criminal activities.
