House CCP Committee Leader Seeks Information From CBP Over Firearm Seizures

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Jun 3, 2025 - 09:58 Updated: Jun 3, 2025 - 09:51
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House CCP Committee Leader Seeks Information From CBP Over Firearm Seizures

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) is seeking information from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regarding the seizure of illegal firearm parts trafficked from China.

Krishnamoorthi, ranking Democrat member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, announced on May 30 that he had sent a letter to CBP Acting Commissioner Pete Flores. His letter cited a report that found that many illegal weapon parts from China were seized earlier this year at the postal processing center at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

“Too many Americans have died from the epidemic of gun violence,” Krishnamoorthi wrote in the letter. “We must all do our part to save lives and keep our communities safe, including by preventing the import of illegal weapon parts from the PRC [People’s Republic of China].”

In January, CBP officials in Chicago announced that they had seized 473 shipments containing 1,507 weapon-modifying devices in 2024, with most of the shipments originating in China. The shipments contained more than 1,500 Glock switches, devices that can modify firearms to enable fully automatic fire.

Krishnamoorthi asked the CBP acting chief to answer several questions before June 30, including queries about the number of illegal firearms from China seized at airport screening facilities in the past two years.

The lawmaker also inquired about the number of ghost guns, a term that generally refers to homemade firearms lacking a serial number, that the CBP has seized over the past two years.

Krishnamoorthi noted that law enforcement sometimes uses a tactic known as “controlled deliveries,” in which authorities allow illegal goods to reach their destination in order to arrest their buyers and dealers. He then asked CBP how often it carries out these kinds of operations for illegal weapon parts from China.

Krishnamoorthi also asked Flores what kind of working relationship, if any, his agency has with China to stop the export of these illicit weapon parts.

“Has the PRC Government ever failed to fully cooperate with a CBP request for assistance on such matters?” he asked in the letter.

Krishnamoorthi also called on China to curb the export of these weapon parts.

“It is highly probable that PRC regulators monitor the weapon parts industry closely, and thus are not clueless to the fact that these deadly components are being shipped to America,” he wrote. “To the extent they have any information in the PRC that could help CBP more effectively interdict and stop these packages, they need to share it with us.”

In September 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced that federal authorities in Boston had seized more than 350 internet domains that were allegedly used for illegally importing gun switches and silencers from China.
In October 2024, a man named Latavion Johnson was charged with one count of possession of a machine gun after federal law enforcement officials found a Glock switch at his residence in Chicago, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

In January, six people were arrested and charged following a Glock switch takedown by Texas law enforcement officials, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas. Two of the defendants allegedly ordered gun switches from China online.

In May, a federal judge in Tennessee sentenced Kalen Thompson to 40 months in prison for possession of a Glock switch, according to the Department of Justice.

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