The RCMP is investigating a Vancouver man arrested in Washington state last month with dozens of firearms, including a .50-calibre sniper rifle.
Sgt. Duncan Pound, of the Integrated Border Enforcement Team, said B.C. authorities are trying to determine what Oliver King intended to do with the cache of guns and ammunition he stashed in a storage locker in Ferndale, Wash.
“We have investigators working on it,” Pound said Thursday. “We work hand-in-hand with American authorities.”
King, who also calls himself Hamid Malekpour, appeared in a Seattle courtroom Thursday and entered two not guilty pleas to charges he was illegally in possession of the weapons and that he gave a false statement upon entering the U.S.
King remains in custody. A jury trial has been set for Aug. 9.
He was arrested May 19 after telling Peace Arch border guards he was heading down to Bellis Fair Mall to get his wife at the Target store.
He had just picked up a new Canadian passport that morning and when asked about it said the “old one had gone through the washing machine,” according to court documents.
When his car was searched at the border, agents found the other passport “with no visible water damage.”
King was allowed to carry on into the U.S., but agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement followed him as he passed by the mall and headed straight to McMinnville, Ore.
They watched as he loaded several cardboard boxes into his vehicle and drove back up the I-5 to a storage facility in Ferndale.
“Agents approached King when he parked his car at the Ferndale storage facility,” the court documents state. At first, he let them search his vehicle.
However, “Agents found two shotguns, two semi-automatic handguns and approximately 480 rounds of .50-calibre ammunition in the car before King reconsidered and revoked his consent.”
ICE agents got a search warrant for the locker, where they found a .50-calibre sniper rifle, two .308-calibre sniper rifles, three .300-calibre sniper rifles, eight law enforcement style .233-calibre rifles, three Glock semi-automatic handguns, 100 .223-calibre magazines, 3,800 rounds of .223-calibre ammunition and several other firearms-related items, such as high-end scopes.
“The value of the recovered firearms and ammunition is well over $30,000,” the documents state. “Many of the weapons were in boxes with shipping labels to the McMinnville, Ore., office that King entered.”
Investigators discovered that King is named on the lease of the Oregon office.
“According to documents found in King’s car during a previous border crossing, King previously was a licensed firearms dealer in Canada in the name of Hamid Malekpour. The Canadian government revoked his licence after discovering Malekpour was selling firearms over the Internet, which is prohibited by Canadian law,” the court documents state.
But they also say Malekpour recovered his gun licence in Canada and “has six firearms registered to him.”
Vancouver Provincial Court records show that Malekpour won an application to restore his firearms licence in March 2009.
U.S. agents also found documents indicating King worked for a company owned by his spouse called Modeling Intelligence Corp. No such company is listed in the B.C. Government’s corporate registry.
He told them he was an avid hunter, though an ICE agent stated in court documents that “the size and type of firearms and ammunition found is not consistent with an occasional recreational hunter.”
U.S. officials found a Canadian hunting licence issued on May 18 in the name of Malekpour, a B.C. driver’s licence in the name of King and a May 18 Canada Post receipt in the name of Malekpour.
“King was born Hamid Malekpour in Tehran, Iran, in 1975. He appears to be using both names and we have not yet confirmed what is his legal name,” the court documents say.
U.S. officials said that the older of King’s passports still had a valid visa for Iran and indicated King had travelled there as recently as March.
Pound said Canadian investigators have determined the older passport was in fact cancelled after it was damaged. The corner had been cut off, making it void.
There remain many questions about the mysterious Canadian and his cache of weapons.
Pound said the U.S. charges, as laid out, do not indicate a crime was committed on the Canadian side of the border. “The guns never crossed the border,” he said.
RCMP Insp. Paul Richards, who heads the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, said so far there is no indication of any terrorist links.
“I am aware of the case, of course,” he said Thursday. “But there is no suggestion that there is a nexus into our work.”
Back in 2005, the B.C. Association of Chartered Accountants went to B.C. Supreme Court to get King to stop calling himself a chartered accountant or using the initials CA. The accountants won.
King, as Malekpour, filed a small claim in Vancouver Provincial Court for $10,270 against a company called European Arms Distributor (1982) Ltd. It was later dismissed.
The U.S. Attorney is seeking the forfeiture of all the firearms seized.
kbolan@vancouversun.com
The Real Scoop: www.vancouversun.com/bolan
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