Ohio man guilty of selling 300 guns without a license, some stopped on the way to Beirut

A Richfield Township man pleaded guilty in federal court this week after he sold approximately 300 firearms over a three-year period with a number of them intercepted on their way to the Middle East.

Timothy Cassinger, 48, was arrested last November on allegations he bought and sold hundreds of guns, and invested thousands of dollars in the endeavor from June 2012 to October 2015.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was tipped off to Cassinger in September 2014 by Spanish authorities who informed agents that they intercepted 11 guns on their way to Beirut.

After investigating the matter, the ATF learned Cassinger sold the guns through the website Arms List, which hosts gun sales ads posted by private and licensed sellers, to a suspect already being investigated for shipping guns to the Middle East. The suspect had been hiding guns in vehicles aboard cargo containers.

According to court documents, other firearms purchased by Cassinger were later recovered in Cleveland, Columbus, East Cleveland, New York City and other cities.

In November 2014, ATF agents interviewed Cassinger about his gun dealing and informed him of the investigation, but he continued dealing. This resulted in a written warning in January 2015 to stop reselling guns for profit without a license but he purchased at least another 24 firearms after that date according to NICS records.

Then, starting in September 2015, Cassinger became the subject of an undercover operation and over the course of two months, agents met with him on multiple occasions and executed numerous buys.

Cassinger is scheduled to be sentenced July 13.

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