John Diedrich
A former small-town Wisconsin police chief is implicated in a scheme by a California gun dealer to illegally import armor-piercing incendiary rounds into the United States from Bosnia, according to federal court records.
Bringing such ammunition into the country is a violation of federal law, but there are exceptions, including if the ammunition is for an American police department.
In 2021, the California gun dealer and his brother enlisted then-police chief James Bushey of the Town of Linn Police Department in Walworth County to sign documents saying his department needed the ammunition, according to a federal search warrant unsealed in late 2024 and other documents.
In exchange, the gun dealer promised to provide money to pay for squad cars and other equipment for the town's police department, the warrant says.
The plan failed when the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives halted the import, asking why a department of a half-dozen officers policing a town of 2,600 people south of Lake Geneva would need more than a million rounds of such specialized ammunition.
The California gun dealer, Darin Dowd, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. regarding the importation of a half-million of the rounds of ammunition.
A plea agreement was filed in the Eastern District of Wisconsin on July 2. Dowd faces up to five years in prison. No court dates have been set.
Dowd did not return messages for comment.
Dowd's brother, Jacob Dowd, has also been implicated along with others, but to date, only Darin Dowd has been charged.
The former chief, Bushey, 41, did not return calls and messages seeking comment.
James Weiss, chairman of the Linn Town Board, confirmed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on July 9 that Bushey is no longer employed by the town and added officials have been fully cooperating with federal authorities.
"As confirmed by federal representatives, the Town of Linn and its current administration are not subjects of any prosecutorial inquiry," Weiss said, reading from a prepared statement. "The Town of Linn holds all officials to standards of integrity. Actions that violate those standards are inconsistent with our values."
Weiss declined further comment, citing the ongoing federal probe.
Chief misled Town Board on deal, according to court documents
The search warrant and other documents provided these details:
The scheme played out in 2021 as the Dowd brothers were looking for a police chief to file false paperwork to get the highly sought-after ammunition.
Dowd was part owner of United Forces Enterprises, a federal firearms licensee in Vacaville, California.
Bushey said he was approached by his former roommate, who was acting as a go-between with the Dowds. Bushey said he agreed to sign the paperwork saying 1.5 million of the rounds were needed for his department.
At a meeting with the Town Board in June 2021, Bushey told board members he was entering into a creative deal with a gun dealer to get ammunition, which was in short supply at the time, donated to the department.
But Bushey didn't include the fact that he was falsely claiming to the ATF that all the ammunition was for the town department, or that he would be receiving cash payments in exchange for submitting the paperwork.
Bushey provided a second purchase order of 3 million rounds of 12.7X99 Armor-Piercing Incendiary Brass Case ammunition. This type of ammunition is used in firearms such as the Barrett M82 rifle and M2HB/M2 Browning belt-fed rifle.
"This is a large-caliber weapon and is rarely, if ever, used for law enforcement purposes and even more rare to be an API round," the warrant said.
After the paperwork was submitted, an ATF agent contacted Bushey and, according to Bushey, said it “looked a bit odd that a small department in Wisconsin was buying 1.5 million rounds of belt-fed ammo."
John Diedrich can be reached at jdiedrich@gannett.com.
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