Michigan man pleads guilty to smuggling guns into Canada using Nexus pass
Posted January 8, 2019 12:20 pm.
Last Updated January 8, 2019 12:29 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Michigan man who pleaded guilty on Monday to smuggling guns into Canada using his Nexus pass admitted in court that he had pangs of conscience as he watched news reports covering Toronto’s record-breaking wave of homicides in 2018, media reports say.
Randy Jackson, 35, pleaded guilty to smuggling four guns across the border at Port Huron, Michigan, into Canada, but as part of a plea agreement he admitted that he bought a total of 67 handguns in Michigan in 2017 and transported them into Canada to be sold on the streets.
The Toronto Star and The Toronto Sun reported that Jackson addressed his possible role in the disturbing spate of GTA gun violence in court on Monday.
“There was a shooting somewhere in the GTA in the news almost every day,” he told the court. “It’s a painful thing, it’s a painful feeling to see so many stories break and wonder if I had any fault in it.”
Jackson, who has no previous criminal history, has a girlfriend in London Ont., and routinely crossed the border using a Nexus pass that allows for quicker passage at border crossings.
Several of the guns he admitted to smuggling have since been recovered at various crime scenes.
Jackson is expected to be sentenced on Friday.
