A federal court jury last week acquitted a Los Angeles police officer of attempting to illegally export guns to Belize for a private security business he owned.
Federal prosecutors had alleged that LAPD Officer Johnny Augustus Baltazar illegally shipped a safe packed with firearms and ammunition to Belize in July 2007. The cache included eight .40-caliber handguns, two 9-millimeter handguns and more than 1,500 rounds of ammunition. Baltazar had bought most of the weapons at the LAPD police academy store for his Belize business, Elite Security.
Amanda Bettinelli, the assistant U.S. attorney on the case, could not be reached for comment.
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At trial, Baltazar's lawyer, Humberto Diaz, a deputy federal public defender, discounted the charges against his client as technical violations of a complex series of regulations.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-guns-20100906,0,5625451.story