Florida High School Teacher Caught Supplying Guns to International Gang

A Hillsborough County High School teacher has admitted to her role in a conspiracy involving illegal firearm purchases tied to an international criminal organization. According to U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe, 46-year-old Shannon Lee Samlalsingh pleaded guilty on June 20, 2025, to conspiring to make false statements to a licensed firearms dealer. She now faces up to five years in federal prison. Her sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.

Court documents show that in 2020 and 2021, Samlalsingh bought several firearms and gun parts from licensed dealers in Hillsborough and Miami-Dade Counties. During these transactions, she falsely claimed on federal ATF Form 4473 that she was the actual buyer. In truth, she had received funds through international wire transfers from members of a transnational criminal organization based in Trinidad. She was instructed to buy specific firearms and components and pass them off to other members of the group in Florida, who then smuggled the weapons back to Trinidad. Samlalsingh kept a portion of the funds as payment.

Authorities in Trinidad and Tobago seized a shipment on April 21, 2021, at Piarco International Airport that had originated from the United States. Hidden inside two punching bags, they discovered a cache of firearms and accessories, including eleven 9mm pistols, two .38 caliber revolvers, a 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun, multiple AR-15 parts, magazines, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Several of the weapons recovered were traced back to Samlalsingh’s purchases, including SAR-9, Ruger-9, Taurus G3, and Taurus G2C pistols.

The investigation was led by Homeland Security Investigations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with support from several other agencies, including the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of National Security, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.

The case is part of a broader effort under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program, which targets major criminal networks using a coordinated, intelligence-driven approach.