The situation in Haiti may be stablizing, but one has to wonder for just how long that's going to hold true. 

Meanwhile, Haiti's neighbor, the Dominican Republic, has been relatively stable. Yet both have an issue. Despite strict gun control laws, guns keep ending up on the island shared by the two nations.

Many people point expornger at the US, but it should be noted that exporting guns without State Department approval is illegal. You can't just box up your Glock and mail it to another country, even if the recipient can lawfully possess it.

But criminals don't care about that, and four people were just sentenced for a plot to ship guns to the Dominican Republic in spite of those laws.

Four people have been sentenced for their involvement in a gun trafficking ring

According to court documents, in 2021, Jonathan Hiraldo Abreu, 31, of Reading, Pennsylvania contacted Cornel Rashard Miley 31, of Lithonia, to ask about a gun Miley advertised for sale.

Hiraldo Abreu met Miley in Georgia to purchase the gun. Miley then agreed that he and his wife, Charqweshia Sierra Miley, 33, of Lithonia, would get more guns for Hiraldo Abreu in exchange for a premium paid for each gun.

To get more guns, the Mileys repeatedly deceived licensed gun dealers to buy the firearms. Officials say Hiraldo Abreu was the actual purchaser who provided the money to the Mileys and told them which guns to buy.

Authorities said within less than seven months, the Mileys purchased at least 73 guns for Hiraldo Abreu, all of which were Glock 9 mm semiautomatic pistols.

The Northern District of Georgia Attorney’s Office states that Hiraldo Abreu traveled from Pennsylvania to Georgia in November 2021, December 2021, February 2022, and April 2022 to pick up guns from the Mileys. In June 2022, Hiraldo Abreu recruited his cousin, Jose Munoz, 21, of Cranston, Rhode Island, to manage the gun purchases in his place.

Munoz met Hiraldo Abreu in Pennsylvania, traveled to Georgia, directed the Mileys’ purchase of 22 guns, and then went back to Hiraldo Abreu’s home, court documents revealed. Within three weeks, nine of the guns that the Mileys purchased under Munoz’s supervision were recovered during an x-ray inspection of a shipping container in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The guns had been reportedly stashed inside the container with various household goods.

Again, this is all highly illegal under US law. That, of course, would be why they stashed the guns inside a container with household goods. The thought likely being that the other goods would hide the guns from customs inspectors and the like.

That would be why they were sentenced under US law.

Of course, the law actually led to arrests and convictions in this case, but it's interesting how, when it doesn't work, it's the lack of laws responsible, not that you can't enforced laws when you're unaware someone is breaking them.

Instead, people want us to pass numerous new restrictions on what people like you or I can buy and sell, all while refusing to acknowledge that the actions that represent a problem are already illegal under federal law.

"You can't have a semi-auto rifle because of Mexican cartels or Dominican gangs!"

Never mind that we can't sell them gun lawfully anyway. Never mind that there's no evidence they can't get their hands on guns in some other manner.

These folks were caught. Others aren't. 

That's not a failure of insufficient gun control. That's not even a law enforcement failure. That's just the nature of criminal enterprises. Unless the cops learn something is going on, people get away with plenty. We need to come to understand this fact as a nation.