Hillsborough County High School Teacher Sentenced to Prison for Conspiring to Provide Firearms to Trinidad-Based Transnational Criminal Organization

Tampa, Florida - Shannon Nicole Samlalsingh (47, Temple Terrace) was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William F. Jung to one year and one day in federal prison for conspiracy to make false statements to a firearms dealer. The court also ordered Samlalsingh to forfeit the firearms purchased as a result of the offense. Samlalsingh pleaded guilty on June 20, 2025. United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.

According to court documents, Samlalsingh, then a Hillsborough County high school teacher, bought seven firearms for a Trinidad-based transnational criminal organization. Samlalsingh falsely stated on Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives forms that those firearms were for her. In actuality, Samlalsingh gave the firearms to members of the transnational criminal organization. Those individuals then smuggled the firearms into Trinidad.

On April 21, 2022, Trinidad authorities seized a shipment from the United States containing two punching bags and other goods at Piarco International Airport. Concealed within the two punching bags were approximately eleven 9mm pistols, two .38 caliber special revolvers, a 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun, three AR-15 barrel foregrips, 19 lower pistol grip assemblies, 11 forearm bolt assemblies, three AR-15-style barrels with forearm grips, 32 AR-15 magazines, one AR-15 drum magazine, 470 rounds of AR-15 ammunition, 34 9mm magazines, three 9mm drum magazines, 284 9mm rounds, fifteen .38 caliber rounds, 36 shells, six magazine couplers, and two shotgun chokes. Samlalsingh had purchased four of the seized firearms: a SAR-9 9mm pistol, a Ruger-9 9mm pistol, a Taurus G3 9mm pistol, and a Taurus G2C 9mm pistol.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, including HSI's Attaché, Caribbean, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with assistance provided by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (Transnational Organized Crime Unit and Special Investigations Unit), United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, United States Customs and Border Protection, and the United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Export Enforcement. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Adam W. McCall.