Charges are pending against five more individuals in connection with an alleged gun smuggling operation between south Florida and Grand Cayman in 2008, according to US court records reviewed by the Caymanian Compass.
The charges come in the form of sealed indictments, filed in late December in US District Court, southern district of Florida. They do not name the individuals who face the pending indictments.
According to a defence attorney’s motion filed before the US District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, “Assistant US Attorney Michael Walleisa has advised … that he will be superseding with a new indictment, which adds additional defendants to the case.
“The government has also advised counsel that the government anticipates obtaining testimony from several cooperating witnesses who are presently incarcerated,” the motion continues, adding that some additional investigative work will have to be conducted in the Cayman Islands prior to a trial proceeding in the matter.
US District Judge William Zloch agreed to the motion and set a trial date for 16 April, to allow more time for attorneys on both sides to review and investigate the case; a process known as discovery.
Caymanian Mikkyle Brandon Leslie, 25, also known as Brandon Leslie Ebanks, is being held in the US on a five-count federal court indictment connected to the gun smuggling case. Leslie is accused of conspiring with other individuals in the illegal shipping of firearms from the Miami area to Grand Cayman between May and November 2008, according to the indictment obtained by the Caymanian Compass.
Leslie faces one count of conspiracy to smuggle firearms, two counts of smuggling firearms and ammunition, and two counts of delivering firearms to a common carrier without notice. Each count carries an individual maximum sentence of between five and 10 years imprisonment.
The indictment was handed up by a federal grand jury in the US District Court in the southern district of Florida on 22 December. An indictment is a charge or accusation of criminal activity and does not constitute a conviction.
Now attached to the charges against Leslie are pending counts against five other individuals. They are referred to as “Sealed Defendants two, three, four, five, and six” in the court records.
Sealed defendants two, three, five and six face three criminal counts apiece. Charges are for “conspiracy to defraud the US/smuggling firearms”, “smuggling firearms and ammunition into the US”, and “interstate shipments – delivering firearms to a common carrier without notice”. Sealed defendant four also faces those charges, as well as an additional two counts of “smuggling firearms and ammunition into the United States”.
Major investigation
Although some details of the Florida-Cayman gun smuggling operation had been reported by the Caymanian Compass in 2009, the full extent of the investigation was not known publicly until this newspaper obtained a probable cause affidavit filed by US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigators in early December.
That document, required to be filed so officers could arrest Mikkyle Brandon Leslie, named roughly a dozen other individuals who US authorities believed played some role in the gun smuggling operation. Again, the affidavit does not amount to criminal charges against those named individuals.
However, statements made in the document indicate the named individuals – most of whom are Caymanians – “were identified as participants in the firearms smuggling activities”. It is not known if any of the named individuals in that record are the “Sealed Defendants” referred to in the US attorneys latest round of indictments.
The indictment against Leslie also names several other individuals in recounting what US authorities believe to have occurred with the gun smuggling case during 2008.
The Caymanian Compass has printed below federal prosecutors’ chronological series of events as they appear in the charges against Leslie:
29 May, 2008: Michael Timothy Ebanks flew from Grand Cayman to Miami, Florida.
In or about June 2008: Michael Ebanks purchased a .45-calibre firearm and ammunition from Howard Antonio Edwards, aka Michael Bell, aka Jason Jenkins.
6 July, 2008: The defendant, Mikkyle Brandon Leslie, using the name Brandon Ebanks, purchased a refrigerator at BrandsMart USA in Miami, Florida.
11 September, 2008: Mikkyle Brandon Leslie, using the name Mikkyle Ebanks, and Mario Beckford delivered a refrigerator to Tropical Shipping … in Miami, Florida to be sent to Jerica Fellner in Grand Cayman.
27 September, 2008: The refrigerator that was sent by Mario Beckford to Jerica Fellner arrived in Grand Cayman and was picked up by Jerica Fellner and Robert Terry. (This section of the indictment has Fellner spelled with one “l”, but officials confirmed it refers to the same person).
29 September, 2008: Defendant Mikkyle Brandon Leslie flew from Miami, Florida to Grand Cayman.
8 October, 2008: Defendant Mikkyle Brandon Leslie flew from Grand Cayman to Miami, Florida.
Between 10 and 21 October, 2008: Mikkyle Brandon Leslie purchased four firearms and two thirty-three round magazines from Big Al’s Gun and Pawn in Broward County, Florida.
15 October, 2008: Michael Timothy Ebanks flew from Grand Cayman to Miami, Florida.
16 October, 2008: Mikkyle Brandon Leslie, Michael Ebanks and Jason Jenkins purchased a refrigerator at BrandsMart USA in Miami, Florida.
21 October, 2008: Mikkyle Brandon Leslie picked up four firearms form Big Al’s Gun and Pawn in Broward County, Florida.
4 November, 2008: Mikkyle Brandon Leslie, using the name Jason Jenkins, delivered a refrigerator containing five firearms, 800 rounds of ammunition, a magazine for an AK-47 type rifle and a magazine for a MAC-10 type pistol, to Tropical Shipping … in Miami, Florida for shipment to Ashley Watler in Grand Cayman.
12 November, 2008: Michael Ebanks and Ashley Watler paid Thompson Shipping Co. Ltd. in Grand Cayman approximately $184.77 for shipping fees for the refrigerator, which had been sent to Ashley Watler by Mikkyle Brandon Leslie.
13 November, 2008: Michael Ebanks attempted to obtain the refrigerator that had been sent to Ashley Watler by Mikkyle Brandon Leslie from the port in Grand Cayman.
Michael Timothy Ebanks was sentenced to five years imprisonment in Grand Cayman after being convicted for his role in the November 2008 ‘guns-in-fridge’ case.
Robert Terry was recently sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in connection with possession of a firearm that US prosecutors said had been used in 2009 to shoot at former Cayman Islands Chief Magistrate Margaret Ramsay-Hale’s home. While Terry was identified as the possessor of the firearm, there have been no charges against him or anyone else in connection with the shooting at Ms Ramsay-Hale’s home.
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