A former Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy from Quilcene this week admitted to smuggling 85 guns and four grenade launchers from Vietnam to San Francisco in 1994.
Daniel Edward Rogers, 57, pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to purchasing machine guns, grenade launchers and pistols in Vietnam, then arranging their shipment to San Francisco on two Air France airline flights 10 years ago, federal prosecutors in San Francisco said Thursday.
A federal grand jury indicted Rogers in 1995.
Since then, he remained a fugitive in Southeast Asia until Thai immigration authorities arrested him for traveling on a revoked U.S. passport, the prosecutors said.
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took custody of Rogers and returned him to the United States last year.
Deputy in early 1980s
Rogers was a Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy between 1981 and 1985, Sheriff Mike Brasfield confirmed Thursday, but no one now at the Sheriff’s Office remembers him.
“Mr. Rogers, a former law enforcement officer, was apprehended and brought to justice for smuggling over 100 machine guns, grenade launchers and pistols into the United States,” said U. S. Attorney Kevin V. Ryan.
“Due to the cooperation between the Thai authorities and federal law enforcement, Mr. Rogers, a fugitive for nine years, is now being held accountable for his actions.”
