In March of 2021, former San Diego County Sheriff’s Captain Marco Garmo was sentenced to two years in prison for his part in an illegal gun trafficking ring. Garmo used his position and connections to get no fewer than 150 guns into the hands of people over the span of 6 years. Garmo admitted that he did this all in the hopes of profiting financially while also currying favor with “prominent county residents” that could be of use to him as he planned on running for Sheriff of San Diego County.
On Friday, the local gun dealer connected to Garmo’s crime ring, 41-year-old Giovanni “Gio” Tilotta was convicted of illegally trafficking in firearms. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of California, this is the “first federal criminal conviction of a civilian retail gun store owner in the Southern District of California in at least 15 years.” Tilotta’s Honey Badger Firearms was the gun business front for this illegal gun trafficking operation, along with local jeweler Leo Hamel.
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Former captain Garmo was able to use a loophole in California gun law, allowing law enforcement the ability to purchase newer firearms the public didn’t necessarily have access to, to make “straw purchases” for himself that he subsequently sold off to others. Tilotta’s Honey Badger Firearms procured the firearms for Garmo. According to the press release:
Tilotta committed these crimes through his licensed firearms dealer, Honey Badger Firearms in Kearney Mesa, despite an explicit warning he received from the California Department of Justice in December 2015 advising him to avoid allowing straw purchases at his business. Emails admitted at trial indicated that, instead, Tilotta directed Hamel and Garmo to create sham emails to cover up the straw purchases they conducted at Honey Badger.
KPBS reports that Tilotta’s machinations were used in order to both cover up the sale of “off-roster” guns to private citizens that those citizens were not allowed to own under any circumstances; as well as backdating paperwork in order to get around gun regulatory issues like an individual having a restraining order against them.
Garmo’s reach was far more extensive than just gun-running. He was also convicted of profound corruption in regard to local marijuana dispensaries. The 27-year veteran police officer retired from the force shortly before being indicted along with Tilotta and Hamel, local resident Waiel Yousif Anton, and San Diego County sheriff's deputy Fred Magana. Magana plead guilty to the charges against him in 2020, and subsequently retired from the force, ending an 18-year-career.
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