Montreal man extradited for allegedly using library on U.S. border to smuggle guns

Share

A Montreal man has been extradited to the United States on charges that he used the Haskell Free Library, which was purposefully built astride the Quebec-Vermont border as a symbol of friendship between the two countries, to smuggle a backpack full of handguns into Canada.

Alexis Vlachos, a 40-year-old with an extensive criminal record in Quebec, was indicted by U.S. authorities two years ago, but his case only got public notice this week when federal prosecutors announced that he had appeared in court on June 5 after being extradited from Canada.

The 20 firearms Mr. Vlachos is alleged to have smuggled through the library included eight Glock Model 26 and Model 27 pistols, five Beretta PX4 Storm pistols and two Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 38 revolvers, according to court documents.

The Haskell Free Library is a landmark that straddles the Canada-U.S. border, between the Quebec town of Stanstead and neighbouring Derby Line, in Vermont.

The building was commissioned more than a century ago as a shared facility by Canadian philanthropist Martha Stewart Haskell in memory of her late American husband, the businessman Carlos Haskell.

According to indictments filed in U.S. district court in Vermont, Mr. Vlachos hired a Florida woman, Annette Wexler, and another co-conspirator to purchase in Tampa about 90 handguns that Mr. Vlachos later smuggled into Quebec.

Ms. Wexler, who works as a leasing specialist for an apartment complex in Tampa, pleaded guilty to two criminal counts in 2013. At a previous hearing, the court was told she was hired around July, 2010, to help with the purchase of dozens of handguns from several Florida firearms stores.

In March of 2011, Ms. Wexler and an accomplice, Jaime Ruiz, bought 20 handguns in Florida and drove to Vermont, checking into the Four Seasons Motel in Derby, one indictment said.

On March 25 of that years Mr. Ruiz and Ms. Wexler then walked into the Haskell Library, with the firearms hidden in backpack, which Mr. Ruiz left in a washroom, the court document said.

Immediately after Mr. Ruiz left, Mr. Vlachos, who had used the entrance on the Vermont side, picked up the bag in the washroom, left the building and walked back into Quebec without going through a port-of-entry, the indictment said.

Two days later, Ms. Wexler received a payment of $18,000 from Mr. Vlachos, the indictment said.

The next month, Mr. Vlachos picked up 34 more handguns – including Walther, Glock, Kel-Tec, Beretta and Ruger pistols – in Florida and drove with Ms. Wexler to Vermont, from where he smuggled the guns into Canada by hiking through a remote area, the indictment said.

Quebec court records show Mr. Vlachos had 23 criminal files in the past two decades. He has pleaded guilty to charges such as robbery, break and entry, theft, uttering threats, possession of drugs, possession of stolen goods, conspiracy, wearing a disguise and using an imitation firearm to commit an offence.

After his extradition, he pleaded not guilty to conspiring to export handguns without a munitions permit, exporting handguns without a permit and possession of firearms in the United States while in alien status.