A Trinidad and Tobago national extradited from Jamaica has pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle firearms into his home country, U.S. prosecutors announced Friday.
Shem Wayne Alexander, 35, of Port of Spain, faces up to five years in federal prison after admitting to participating in a scheme to unlawfully export weapons, ammunition, and gun parts from Florida to Trinidad and Tobago between 2019 and 2022. He was arrested in Jamaica on November 15, 2024, under a U.S. provisional arrest request, and extradited to the United States the following month.
According to court documents, Alexander and his co-conspirators disguised the shipments as household goods. In one case, authorities in Trinidad and Tobago discovered a cache of weapons hidden in punching bags that had been sent from the U.S. to Piarco International Airport in April 2021. The shipment contained 11 pistols, two revolvers, a shotgun, AR-15 parts, more than 60 magazines, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, including HSI’s Legal Attaché for the Caribbean, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with assistance provided by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (Transnational Organized Crime Unit and Special Investigations Unit), United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and United States Customs and Border Protection. The Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, the Jamaica Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the Jamaica Constabulary Force provided critical support in the extradition of Alexander. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David W.A. Chee and Adam W. McCall.
The case is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) initiative, which targets transnational criminal networks.
Sentencing for Alexander has not yet been scheduled.
