Kojo Owuso Dartey, a 42-year-old U.S. Army Major from Fort Liberty, has been sentenced to 70 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. The sentencing is due to charges including making false statements to a U.S. agency, false declarations before the court, conspiracy, dealing in firearms without a license, delivering firearms without notice to the carrier, smuggling goods from the United States, and illegally exporting firearms without a license. A jury found Dartey guilty on April 23, 2024.
Court records and trial evidence revealed that Dartey was involved in a marriage fraud scheme involving soldiers at Fort Liberty and foreign nationals from Ghana. During the trial of U.S. v. Agyapong held between June 28 and July 2, 2021, he lied about his sexual relationship with a defense witness both to federal law enforcement and under oath.
Dartey's illegal activities included purchasing seven firearms in the Fort Liberty area and instructing a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant at Fort Campbell, Kentucky to buy three more firearms and send them to North Carolina. He concealed these weapons inside blue barrels beneath rice and household goods with help from an Army Chief Warrant Officer before smuggling them out of Baltimore's port to Tema's port in Ghana. The Ghana Revenue Authority seized these firearms and reported the incident to the DEA attaché in Ghana as well as the ATF Baltimore Field Division.
The announcement was made by Daniel Bubar, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina following sentencing by Chief U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II. The investigation was conducted by several agencies including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID), and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Export Enforcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gabriel J. Diaz prosecuted this case.