Lombard man gets 5 years for shipping guns to the Philippines

A registered nurse from Lombard was sentenced Tuesday to five years in federal prison after admitting to shipping firearms to the Philippines.

Edwin N. Makasiar, 44, pleaded guilty in December to charges of attempting to export defense articles without a license. Makasiar admitted in a plea agreement that he exported at least 32 firearms, including handguns and rifles, to the Philippines from 2005 to 2012.

Makasiar also admitted that he filed a false report with the Lombard Police Department in August 2012. In the report, Makasiar falsely stated that two weapons had been stolen from him prior to their being shipped. He filed the false report after learning that two of the weapons would be inspected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"The illegal trafficking of firearms from the United States to the Philippines is a significant law enforcement problem," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Fayhee said.

The sentence was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and James Gibbons, acting special agent-in-charge of the Chicago Office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations.

"The illegal exportation of firearms is tantamount to breaching the border," Gibbons said. "The prosecution of weapons smugglers is an HSI priority as we work to interdict illegally trafficked guns and secure our nation's borders in both directions."