Who is Larry Vickers? Charges against retired firearms instructor explored 

Larry Vickers, the retired Delta Force soldier and former firearms instructor, has been in the news lately. He recently pleaded guilty to federal charges of violating US sanctions on Russia and conspiring with two police chiefs to fraudulently obtain machine guns.

On October 21, 2023, news broke that five individuals, including two former North Carolina and North Dakota police chiefs, have been charged with the conspiracy of fraudulently buying machine guns.

Matthew Jeremy Hall, James Sawyer, Larry Vickers, Sean Reidpath Sullivan, and James Christopher Tafoya have been indicted by the DOJ on Friday.

In the official statement, it was mentioned,

"Larry, the owner of the firearms-related business VT Guns, Inc. (formerly Vickers Tactical, Inc.), located in North Carolina. VICKERS and his businesses were Federal Firearms Licensees ("FFLs*) and Special Occupational Taxpayers ("SOTs*), which were authorized, in certain circumstances, to possess, manufacture, and deal in machineguns and other National Firearms Act ("NFA") firearms. "

It was also mentioned that all the accused in this case falsely claimed that the illegally obtained guns would be used for law purposes. Moreover, Hall and Sawyer even used fake documents that are called law letters to make it all look real.

It is worth noting that Larry faces a maximum sentence of five years in the conspiracy case for violating the federal law regulating firearms. Other than this, he also a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

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Larry Vickers is a retired soldier who also runs a YouTube channel where he reviews firearms

Larry Vickers is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces veteran and firearms expert. He is popular for his firearms knowledge and is popular for running a YouTube channel where he used to review rare firearms.

The name of his YouTube channel is Vickers Tactical and he enjoys a massive subscriber base of 1.01 million. On his YouTube channel, he has shared a number of videos where he shows how firearms are used and reviews them too.

In his YouTube bio, he has mentioned,

"Larry is a retired US Army Combat veteran of Tier One Special Operations, a firearms accessory developer and consultant, instructor, and the author of the VickersGuide series of firearms books."

Vickers was born in Ohio in June 1963. His father was also in the army and served in the North African and Italian campaigns of World War II.

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What are the charges against Larry Vickers in which he pleaded guilty?

According to the Department of Justice, on October 19, Larry pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy to import and obtain machine guns and other restricted firearms and admitted that he received some of the imported machine guns and other weapons.

It was also mentioned by Vickers in the pleading document that the retired soldier kept some of the machine guns and other restricted weapons in his personal collection and transferred other machine guns and restricted weapons to other FFLs and third parties.

Other than this, it was also mentioned that Larry Vickers also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions against a foreign firearms manufacturer between July 2014 and March 2021, in the Southern District of Florida.

Larry Vickers will face a total of 25 years of maximum sentence over these charges in which he violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.