A former truck driver from Florida has been sentenced to over four years in a U. S. prison for smuggling handguns into Canada, which were later found at 10 crime scenes in Ontario and Quebec, tied to two murders.
Court documents reviewed by shed light on a cross-border pipeline for illegal firearms.
This operation involved legally purchased U. S. guns being transported up to 2,000 kilometers north to be sold to a Canadian trafficker at the retail price of the weapon plus an additional $1,000 fee for each gun.
One of the firearms was discovered in Toronto after what police described as a “reckless” shootout in November 2024 that they claimed showcased the “real and present danger” posed by illegal guns.
This situation isn’t unique. Toronto police informed via email that among the crime guns seized last year and traced so far, 86 percent originated from the U. S.
The smuggler from Florida, 35-year-old Erhan John Er, had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to firearm trafficking and was sentenced earlier this month in U. S. District Court in Tampa.
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In this image taken from video, two men at a birthday party in a Toronto recording studio examine a gun. Multiple firearms could be seen in the video, captured on Nov. 11, 2024. A gun fight broke out afterward and police recovered a handgun that was later traced to U. S. gun smuggler Erhan John Er. (Toronto Police Service)
Prosecutors stated that during the summer of 2022, Er purchased 28 guns from firearm dealers in his state and transported them across the border only to sell them to his unnamed Canadian associate.
Eighteen of those weapons remain unaccounted for.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the U. S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), when asked on federal purchase forms if he was the legitimate buyer of the guns, Er answered “yes.”
“Er falsely claimed to gun dealers that he was buying guns for himself, only to smuggle the guns into Canada where they were used in multiple crimes,” U. S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe said in a statement.
U. S. court records show that weapons bought by Er were recovered at crime scenes throughout Ontario including Thunder Bay as well as York, Durham and Halton regions near Toronto.
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Police said 45-year-old Tobenna Obiaga from Ontario’s Halton region was fatally shot following a disturbance call at a Hamilton house party on June 30, 2024. (Hamilton Police Service)
Court records also reveal Quebec provincial police seized a Glock 45 amid an unspecified homicide investigation in May 2023.
Hamilton police recovered a Glock 49 while looking into another murder on June 30, 2024. On that day investigators reported that Tobenna (Nnanna) Obiaga was shot while sitting in his car after an early-morning incident at a house party; he later died at hospital.
Nineteen months after Er bought a Glock 27 from a Naples, Fla., firearms retailer, it surfaced during Toronto police’s investigation of a high-profile shootout.
Authorities have noted it was “a miracle” no one was killed or hurt during this incident on Nov. 11, 2024 which followed celebrations where social media videos showed several people brandishing weapons.
WATCH | Trucker linked to guns:
U. S. gun smuggler linked to gun crimes across Ontario, Quebec
A Florida man has been sentenced to more than four years behind bars for smuggling firearms found at various Canadian crime scenes including one shoot-out at a recording studio in Toronto according to reports from .
Serial numbers had been erased
All firearms involved in Er’s case shared one significant feature: their serial numbers had been removed.
The authorities managed to restore these serial numbers which eventually connected them back to the New York-born former trucker who had once lived in Toronto according to court documents.
“Altering or obliterating a firearm’s serial number is often utilized by persons attempting to evade detection,” ATF special agent Joshua Dominguez wrote in the criminal complaint reviewed by CBC. “The methods of obliteration include grinding , scraping , and drilling.”
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U. S. federal agents seized a handwritten ledger from a storage unit linked to gun smuggler Erhan John Er in Sarasota , F la. (U. S. District Court , Middle District of Florida )
ATF agents seized a grinder power tool from a Sarasota , F la., storage unit linked to Er. In the same unit , they found a handwritten ledger marked “$16 ,412 Cdn payout” at the bottom.
All the guns recovered from Canadian crime scenes were Glock pistols. But records show Er also tried to acquire even more firepower.
In July 2022 , he logged onto the website of a Naples , F la., gun dealer and sought to buy four Century Arms Mini Draco semi-automatic firearms – a Romanian-built pistol that holds a.
Glorified in rap music , the Mini Draco bears similarities to the infamous Kalashnikov rifle , also known as the AK-47.
“The attempted purchase was flagged as suspicious and never took place ,” Er ‘s plea agreement reads
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Police in London , Ont., displayed a Draco semi-automatic firearm on May 28，25. The weapon is similar to the type of gun that smuggler Erhan John ER sought to obtain from Florida gun dealer. Based on ER ‘s plea agreement, the purchase was deemed suspicious and declined.(Kendra Seguin/CBC)
Er’s co-conspirator – the Canadian who paid him $1，000 fee for each gun he smuggled – is only identified as “Person -1” in the plea agreement. The unnamed suspect has not been charged. P />Kehoe, the Tampa-based prosecutor told CBC t h e matter “continues t o b e under investigation, w i t h regard t o t h ata individual.”
Angie Sloan, a spokesperson f o r t h e O n t ario Provincial Police, sai d t h e agency “reviews all information and evidence provided and investigates matters thoroughly, l ay ing charges when supported b y t h e evidence.”
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