HAMLET — A Richmond County man is facing federal charges, accused of making and selling “hundreds of machine guns” east of Hamlet.
According to federal court documents, the FBI executed a search warrant Oct. 15 at the Grace Chapel Church Road property of 72-year-old Earl Carter Jr. and seized “seized multiple firearms with components present appearing to make the firearm capable of functioning” as a machine gun.
At least one of the seized weapons reportedly included an AK-style rifle with a “third pin,” which investigators say is “an exterior indicator that an AK style rifle is constructed with parts capable of functioning” as a machine gun.
The FBI reportedly found more than 20 firearms across Carter’s property, as well as a homemade suppressor.
Documents note that Carter isn’t legally permitted to own firearms. Records with the N.C. Department of Adult Correction show he was convicted in 1994 of discharging a firearm into an occupied property and served nearly 14 months in prison.
The investigation into Carter reportedly began when a confidential human source bought four machine guns and two illegal suppressors in Wake County.
While being interviewed, the defendant in that case — referred to in court documents as a cooperating defendant — reportedly told investigators that Carter was manufacturing machine guns “at a large scale.”
The unnamed cooperating defendant, according to documents, told investigators that he was introduced to Carter by a mutual acquaintance with interest in machine guns.
The cooperating defendant reportedly saw Carter with “possess hundreds of (machine guns) over the timeframe” and even learned how to make machine guns and suppressors from Carter — who has an alias of “AK Guru.”
Agents reportedly arrested the cooperating defendant on Oct. 2.
Carter allegedly told the cooperating defendant that he has “connections around the world who are able to smuggle firearms from Europe into the United States,” and that he has sold more than 1,000 AK-47s to groups in the area, as well as multiple fully automatic AK-47s to individuals in the mountains. Carter has also allegedly sold weapons to “multiple prominent local individuals.”
While in Carter’s workshop, the cooperating defendant allegedly saw multiple other firearms, including a Browning M2 .50-caliber belt-fed machine gun, a PPS-43 submachine gun, and a Lanchester submachine gun.
Text messages between the cooperating defendant and Carter obtained through a warrant by the FBI reportedly indicate that Carter found buyers for two VZ-61 Skorpion machine guns, an UZI machine gun, and a PM-63 RAK machine gun — which were to be reconstructed by the cooperating defendant and among the weapons found during a search of his home, documents show.
On Oct. 9, Carter reportedly texted the cooperating defendant to “make an arrangement to get all the stuff back to [CARTER] quickly.”
The cooperating defendant reportedly responded that he would make arrangements with a friend to return Carter’s belongings.
Carter reportedly fired back: “The guy that owns them 2 skorpions is mad as hell , what ever I need all that stuff back before Saturday … ‘You in a world of shit boy you better have shit here, what ‘s more important your life or helping people you don’t know.”
Carter is charged with: conspiracy to manufacture and deal in firearms without a license; aiding and abetting possession of a machine gun; and possession of a firearm by a felon.
According to court documents dated Oct. 24, Carter is being detained pending trial because “no condition or combination of conditions of release will reasonably assure the safety of any other person and the community.”
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.