A man called ‘AK Guru’ has been accused of making and selling hundreds of machine guns

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina man whose alias is “AK Guru” has been charged with making and selling hundreds of machine guns built from existing and deconstructed weapons, federal authorities said.

Earl Carter Jr., 72, is being held by federal authorities on charges of conspiracy to manufacture and traffic firearms without a license, possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm by a felon, court records show.

Online court records do not show whether Carter entered a plea to the charges. An attorney listed in the lawsuits did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment on the charges.

An FBI statement citing a confidential informant said Carter, whose alias is “AK Guru,” makes machine guns “by either modifying legal firearms to make a machine gun or by putting together parts of deconstructed machine guns to construct functioning machine guns. ”

Carter also taught others how to make machine guns for him to sell, according to the affidavit filed Oct. 18. The informant told the FBI that Carter runs an “astronomical” number of machine guns through his workshop and that Carter has “connections in the area.” the world who are able to smuggle firearms from Europe to the United States,” the statement said.

“Carter has sold over 1,000 fully automatic AK-47s to various groups in the area and that individuals from the ‘mountains’ have purchased multiple fully automatic AK-47s from Carter every week,” the affidavit said.

The informant told the FBI that he saw Carter possessing machine guns in his workshop in the small town of Hamlet, about 80 miles (128 kilometers) east of Charlotte. According to the informant, these weapons included AK-47-style fully automatic rifles, a Browning M2 .50 caliber belt-fed machine gun, a PPS-43 submachine gun, a Lanchester submachine gun and others, the affidavit said. The informant said Carter asked him to make machine guns that Carter could sell.

Agents who searched Carter’s home, workshop and other premises seized multiple AK-style rifles and other firearms with parts that appeared to allow the weapons to function as a machine gun, the affidavit said.

Carter told officers he knew he was a felon and should not have weapons, the affidavit said. He was convicted of firing a weapon into occupied territory in February 1994.

Carter will be held in federal custody pending trial, a judge has ordered. No trial date has been set.