Man testifies he sold guns illegally for ex-police officer

Attempting to illicitly sell firearms — including an Uzi-like semi-automatic — for a retired Lethbridge police officer ended in a dramatic arrest, an Alberta man told court on Tuesday.

Anthony Stephan said he agreed to sell eight Glock handguns and a Polish version of the Israeli submachine-gun for retired officer Daniel Bennett to buyers in Calgary in 2010.

The man said he desperately needed the money to pay legal bills incurred in a custody battle over daughters he said were in jeopardy.

Stephan said he knew Bennett from gun shows and agreed to take the weapons to Calgary and sell them to an arranged buyer on June 22, 2010.

“I understood he was a retired police officer,” he told court of Bennett, who retired from the Lethbridge Regional Police Service in 2001. “We discussed the matter and agreed upon it.”

He would sell the handguns for $2,000 apiece and the submachinegun for $2,500, and split it with Bennett, testified Stephan.

Bennett transferred the firearms to him at a Lethbridge retail parking lot, Stephan said on the second day of the weapons trafficking trial.

He then drove to Calgary, where he met a purchaser named Mikhail at a commercial parking lot, giving the buyer three handguns and the larger weapon with the expectation of payment later in the day.

Soon after, Stephan said he was surrounded by city police officers “who had a lot of guns.”

He was charged with 61 offences stemming from the firearms trafficking scheme, but was granted immunity in return for his cooperation in the case, he testified.

Bennett is charged with nine counts of firearms trafficking, fraud and mischief.