A former U.S. Border Patrol agent is now facing federal charges for possession of drugs and gun parts officers found in his car following a high-speed police chase late last year.
According to court documents, Shannon Keoni Gaillard, 32, was driving a Nissan Pulsar with stolen plates in Everett, Washington, just north of Seattle, around 3:30 in the morning on Oct. 29. When police tried to pull him over, he led them on a chase, “driving dangerously and evasively at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.” Gaillard eventually lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a cement barrier before fleeing on foot. Officers arrested him at the scene.
When police searched his car, they found M16 and AR-15 parts, instructions for turning an AR-15 into an M16, nearly 200 rounds of ammunition, unregistered homemade silencers, 3.71 grams of crystal methamphetamine, two pipes, empty vials of testosterone steroids, documentation of previous DUI’s in Utah and Tennessee, tactical gear and a U.S. Border Patrol badge.
“Based on the items seized from Gaillard’s vehicle, it appears that he was intending to unlawfully convert an AR-15 firearm into a machine gun. This is unlawful under federal law,” wrote Earl Wozniak, a special agent with the Bureau of Alchohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in a complaint filed last month. “Moreover, civilians are only allowed to possess machine guns if they register them under the NFA.”
The NFA, or the National Firearms Act, taxes and regulates certain firearms, including machine guns and silencers, and certain shotguns and rifles.
Wozniak wrote that Gaillard didn’t have the silencers or any of the other items registered to him, as required by federal law.
This wasn’t Gaillard’s first run-in with the law. In a November 2013 traffic stop, he was arrested for drunk driving, escaped from his handcuffs, and punched an officer in the face. Troopers tackled him and he was taken into custody again.
A month before his most recent arrest, in September 2016, Gaillard was arrested in Lynnwood, Washington. He had methamphetamine and a pipe on him then, too, according to police.
He’s been charged with two counts of possession of methamphetamine, and a count each of unlawful possession of firearms, unlawful possession of ammunition, and unlawful possession of silencers.
Gaillard stopped working as a U.S. Border Patrol agent in February 2014, according to a Facebook post. He was transferred to federal custody earlier this month and has pleaded not guilty, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
