Man Sentenced To Prison For Smuggling Guns To Nigeria For Fight Against Government

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — A 42-year-old Fort Washington man has been sentenced to 63 months in federal prison followed by two years of supervised release for conspiracy, for transporting firearms with obliterated serial numbers and for smuggling firearms and ammunition from the United States to Nigeria.

Eric Fru Nji also must pay a fine of $25,000. Nji was convicted of the charges May 6, 2022, along with co-defendants Wilson Nuyila Tita, 47, of Owings Mills and Wilson Che Fonguh, 41, of Bowie after a two-week trial.

According to the evidence presented at trial, from at least November 2017 through July 2019, Nji and his co-defendants conspired with each other and with others to export firearms, ammunition and other military typed items from the United States to Nigeria. Evidence presented at trial established that Nji and his co-conspirators secreted 38 firearms, 28 of which had the scratched off serial numbers in a shipping container that they sent out of the Port of Baltimore in January 2019.

The guns included sniper rifles, SKS assault rifles (some with bayonets), other rifles and several handguns. There were 44 high-capacity magazines, two rifle scopes and over 35,000 rounds of ammunition.

As detailed in trial testimony, Nji and his co-conspirators contributed funds for the purchase of the firearms, ammunition, reloading materials and other equipment for shipping overseas to separatists fighting against the government of Cameroon. The evidence proved that Nji and his co-conspirators concealed the firearms, ammunition, rifle scopes, and other items in duffle bags and heavily wrapped packages inside sealed compressor units, placing those items into a shipping container destined for Nigeria. Nji and his co-conspirators communicated about their efforts and plans to ship weapons and ammunitions using an on-line encrypted messaging application and code words in order to conceal their activities.