An Italian arms dealer who turned Brooklyn into a launchpad for an underground ammo pipeline has admitted his role in the scheme, pleading guilty in federal court to conspiring to export American-made ammunition that prosecutors say was ultimately funneled to Russia for its war against Ukraine.
Manfred Gruber, 61, entered his guilty plea yesterday in Brooklyn federal court before United States Magistrate Judge Taryn A. Merkl. Prosecutors say Gruber arranged shipments that moved more than $540,000 worth of U.S.-made rounds through John F. Kennedy International Airport to Kyrgyzstan, where the ammunition was then reexported to Russia.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York, Gruber, described in court filings as the director of sales for “Italian Company-1,” bought ammunition from U.S. suppliers and exported it in violation of Commerce Department licenses that explicitly barred reexports. Some of those shipments, the government says, originated with a Nebraska-based U.S. Company-1 and a Tennessee-based U.S. Company-2, and Gruber routed them through a cutout firm to disguise their true destination…