Canton man pleads guilty to buying guns in Ohio to smuggle to Greece (DOJ)

CLEVELAND - An 80-year-old man pleaded guilty in federal court to shipping firearms purchased in Northeast Ohio to sell in Greece.

George Manuselis, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Greece residing in Canton, pleaded guilty to Smuggling Goods from the United States. U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster accepted his plea on July 30.

According to court documents, in April 2022, a firearm recovered in Greece was found to be originally purchased at a legally licensed firearms dealer in Canton. Manuselis was identified as the purchaser. Upon further investigation, agents discovered that several other firearms that were purchased by Manuselis were also recovered in Greece. Manuselis later admitted that he was smuggling the firearms to Greece by secreting them in his suitcase. Manuselis was provided with a warning notice letter about the legal prohibition against straw purchasing, which he signed to acknowledge that he would not purchase firearms for others, nor would he take them out of the country.

However, a short time later, authorities were informed that Manuselis was in the process of purchasing another firearm and that he also had a flight to Greece scheduled to leave the same day. Manuselis was later apprehended and taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport before boarding a flight to Athens. Investigators found that Manuselis had, in fact, again purchased multiple firearms-after being served the warning notice-and that he had them in his possession when he was arrested at the airport on his way to Greece.

Manuselis is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 10. He faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years. As part of his guilty plea, Manuselis agreed to forfeit all of the firearms at issue, including five pistols and approximately 940 rounds of ammunition. A federal district court judge will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The investigation leading to the indictment was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

The prosecution is led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Duncan T. Brown and Toni Beth Schnellinger Feisthamel for the Northern District of Ohio.