Federal agents raid Canfield home

September 28, 2018 at 12:09a.m.

By JUSTIN DENNIS

CANFIELD

Federal agents on Thursday morning raided the home of a township man accused of selling high-powered firearms to illegal buyers in Mexico.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms searched the 5638 S. Raccoon Road home owned by Paul A. Groves, a federally licensed arms dealer who was indicted in 2017 for allegedly conspiring to sell firearms through his Youngstown-based company, High Powered Armory, to illegal buyers.

Suzanne Dabkowski, ATF spokeswoman, declined to comment on the nature of the search, but said it was “an ongoing investigation” in conjunction with the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office. The search was expected to finish Thursday, she said.

A federal grand jury in 2016 charged Groves with receipt or possession of an unregistered firearm, specifically a 40-millimeter machine gun which was not registered to him. A superseding indictment handed up in 2017 also charged Groves with conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Prosecutors allege Groves applied to the bureau in 2015 to license a Hilliard business - Great Machine LLC, operated by Eric L. Grimes, named as a codefendant in the 2016 indictment - as a secondary federally licensed location for his licensed gun dealership.

Between 2014 and 2015, Groves allegedly conspired with black market gun runners from Indiana to funnel at least 62 military-grade .50-caliber rifles to unregistered buyers in Mexico through “straw purchasing,” wherein a legally licensed firearm buyer purchases firearms on another’s behalf, then files a phony report to the bureau. Groves negotiated the purchases, according to a release from federal prosecutors.

The 2017 indictment describes how the gun runners delivered more than $144,000 in cash to Great Machine between January and April 2015, meeting with Groves at his 2500 Market St. business after each payment to acquire the firearms. The conspirators then drove to Texas to sell them to illegal buyers from Mexico “who paid extremely high, marked up prices,” according to the indictment.

Groves pleaded not guilty to both charges. If convicted on both counts, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

Grimes accepted a plea agreement in 2017, pleading guilty to engaging in firearms business without a license.

Groves’ federal jury trial is set for January in the U.S. District Court in Columbus.