Scottsdale machine gun maker charged in Mexico smuggling scheme

A Scottsdale machine gun manufacturer was charged Thursday, along with two other men, in connection with a scheme to smuggle unregistered firearms into Mexico, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Texas.

Tracy Garwood, 62, of Scottsdale, has been charged with conspiracy to possess and transfer unregistered machine guns and illegally export firearms to Mexico. Also facing the same charges are 28-year-old Tyler Carlson and 69-year-old Michael Fox, both of who are from Texas.

Carlson is also facing with an additional charge of possession of an unregistered machine gun.

Carlson worked with others to obtain and smuggle up to 200 firearms, including .50 caliber rifles, and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition to Mexico, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western District of Texas.

Fox, a former law enforcement officer and federal firearms licensee, contacted Garwood, who is the owner of Garwood Industries and a machine gun manufacturer located in the Scottdsale Airpark area. Garwood agreed to help with the construction and supply parts essential to making M-134G Minigun machine guns, officials said.

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The gun is a six-barrel rotary machine gun that can fire between 2,000 and 6,000 rounds of ammunition per minute.

Garwood submitted false paperwork to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives claiming he had destroyed parts for the Miniguns, but instead gave the parts to Fox, the press release indicated.

On Feb. 8, 2017, authorities found three of those Minigun parts while executing a search warrant at Fox’s residence in Texas. Two of them were parts that Garwood told the ATF were destroyed, officials said.

"By arresting weapons smugglers, law enforcement cuts the supply of firearms to the drug cartels, who fuel violence and pose a threat to citizens on both sides of the border," said Special Agent in Charge Shane Folden, of the Department of Homeland Security in San Antonio.

Multiple federal agencies participated in the investigation, officials said.

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