Pennsylvania gun dealer who conspired with Indiana cops will spend 8 years in prison

By Christen Smith

A Pennsylvania gun dealer caught conspiring with two Indiana cops to sell machine gun parts and highly-regulated laser sights on the black market will spend more than eight years behind bars, federal attorneys said earlier this month.
Authorities took Vahan Kelerchian, 58, into custody immediately upon his sentencing Feb. 5 — more than a year after a jury found him guilty of helping two former Lake County police officers straw purchase 71 Heckler & Koch machine guns and 74 restricted laser aiming sights to sell for a profit online.
“Mr. Kelerchian abused the authority entrusted to him for criminal purposes,” said United States Attorney Thomas L. Kirsch II in a news release earlier this month.  “The eight years that he will spend in federal prison, which began today, should be a deterrent to others similarly situated that act for illegal purposes.”
Kelerchian, owner of Armament Services International in southeastern Pennsylvania, between 2008 and 2010 helped Lake County Sheriffs Department Deputy Chief Joseph Kumstar and Ronald Slusser, a former member of the county’s SWAT team, use the department’s letterhead to buy the guns and laser sights — knowing federal law limits their use to law enforcement and military only, effectively banning civilian ownership.
After intercepting the shipments, the

Source: Guns.com