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International Smuggler Used Derby Line Library To Sneak Guns Over U.S.-Canada Border

Prosecutors say a Canadian man has been extradited to Vermont to face charges that he was part of a conspiracy to smuggle guns over the U.S.-Canada border, through a Vermont library.

The U.S. Attorney's office says 40-year-old Alexis Vlachos, of Montreal, smuggled about one hundred guns from the U.S. to Canada by leaving backpacks full of firearms in the bathroom of the Haskell Free Library in Derby Line.

The library straddles the U.S. border, and prosecutors say Vlachos carried the guns out the other side without ever bringing them through an official port of entry.

Prosecutors say in addition to smuggling charges, the conspirators committed federal crimes, by falsely claiming the guns were intended for their own personal use. 

Taylor was VPR's digital reporter from 2013 until 2017. After growing up in Vermont, he graduated with at BA in Journalism from Northeastern University in 2013.
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