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The court documents state a border officer told Skolseg to empty his pockets and found a FedEx waybill. Skolseg told him he had shipped an aquarium to Canada for repairs earlier that day.

Skolseg was released and later met Inkster at a pub, where they decided to contact FedEx to try to have the package returned to the U.S. But a few days later, Canada Border Services Agency officers intercepted it at a Calgary FedEx warehouse and discovered the handguns hidden in the aquarium cooler.

Edmonton

Silk Road

Neither of the men were arrested or charged in Canada, according to the court documents.

The documents go on to allege Skolseg moved to Montreal later that year, where he made contact with a person willing to ship guns to Canada from the U.S. The two allegedly made contact through the black market website Silk Road and made arrangements through The Armoury, an affiliated site.

Between April and June 2012, Inkster was allegedly involved in three shipments of firearms to a mailbox in Calgary from the U.S. containing a total of 10 handguns. He told law enforcement that based on return address labels, the guns had been shipped from Wheeling, West Virginia.

U.S. law enforcement became aware of the West Virginia shipper in May 2012 after Israeli authorities intercepted a package in Jerusalem mailed at the Wheeling post office. The package contained a Glock handgun hidden inside a speaker.

A U.S. postal inspector later found an IP address in Quebec had been used to track four packages sent by the Wheeling suspect to the Calgary address. The man, identified as Michael Frank, is expected to testify that he shipped a total of 25 handguns to the Calgary mailbox.

The initial U.S. grand jury indictment was filed against Skolseg in 2012, with additional charges approved in May 2013.

Skolseg’s lawyer argued that certain information in the record of the case is misleading, and that there are abuse of process issues because so long has passed since the initial charges. He added that Skolseg has no criminal record in Canada.

Skolseg’s next court date is scheduled for Tuesday when Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Douglas Mah is expected to deliver his decision.

jwakefield@postmedia.com

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