By Unfortunately, this type of activity goes on more than you would think:
The officials also said they want to question the four U.S. soldiers whose APO mailing addresses were used by the men in arranging to have the BB guns shipped to South Korea.
By using soldiers’ APO addresses, the weapons entered the country through the U.S. military postal system and thus evaded South Korean import, tax, and other legal requirements, officials said.
The mock weapons are authentic-looking replicas of actual firearms. Although they fire soft BBs, they are powerful enough to inflict severe injuries, the officials said.
The four soldiers are members of the 36th Signal Battalion at Camp Walker, said Gwen Smalls, a spokeswoman for their parent unit, the 1st Signal Brigade.
Daegu customs officials identified the two South Korean employees by their family names, Jin and Lee, both age 30. Each has worked in the same unit for about four years, said customs investigator Im Chae-jin.
According to Im, the pair brought into South Korea 25 mock weapons in nine shipments since September. The shipments had a total value of about $30,000.
