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Gun store in Cardston shut down following ALERT investigation; two men charged

Jun 8, 2017 | 10:02 AM

CARDSTON, AB — The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) have shut down a gun store in Cardston and arrested the two owners following an investigation into alleged gun trafficking.

ALERT’s organized crime team in Lethbridge and the RCMP National Weapons Enforcement Support Team executed the search warrant on May 29 following a five month investigation into K&D Implements in Cardston. ALERT alleges the store was selling firearms and ammunition illegally.

The store owners are accused of failing to ensure firearm purchasers possessed valid Possession Acquisition Licenses, which prompted the firearm trafficking charges.

“This gun store needlessly put public safety at risk by allowing conceivably anyone to acquire guns,” said ALERT Lethbridge Staff Sgt. Jason Walper in a news release. “We would be naïve to believe that this was not exploited by organized crime and the criminal element.”

Authorities seized the store’s entire inventory due to the severity of the allegations and the risk to public safety. The inventory includes more than 1 million rounds of ammunition, 49 handguns, 972 long guns, 270 kilograms of gun powder, 12,000 fire arm primers and 446 kilograms of Tannerite, a binary explosive material.

Dean Sommerfeldt, 58 and Todd Sommerfeldt, 31, have both been charged with trafficking a firearm, possession of weapons for the purpose of trafficking, careless storage of a restricted weapon, and transfer of a weapon and/or ammunition without authority.

Both men were released from custody on a number of court imposed conditions, including not to possess any firearms.