A 37-year-old Langley man is facing charges in both the U.S. and Canada for allegedly running an online gun doctoring and parts business.
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Bradley Michael Friesen is accused of being a freelance gun doctor with charges ranging from weapons smuggling to illegal manufacturing of gun parts to possession of prohibited weapons.
At the time of his arrestat a campground in the Okanagan, police say they found a number of weapons stashed within arm’s reach of his five-year-old son.
The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said the man was first put on their radar after receiving a call from ATF officials in Tucson, Arizona about a B.C. man they believed was selling gun components online.
“The B.C. man was suspected of selling Glock auto sears and switches, gun parts which convert Glock pistols to fully automatic and silencers via the internet,” a release from the gang-related CFSEU said.
Police in B.C. followed up and observed Friesen allegedly mailing parts to addresses in Canada, the U.S. and Australia as well as manufacturing gun parts in a workshop near his home in Langley.
When they received word from U.S. officials that he had been indicted there, they tracked him to a campground in Osoyoos where they arrested him and found a number of firearms and prohibited devices stashed underneath a car booster seat used by his young child.
“Bradley Friesen is a dangerous offender who is alleged to have showed a complete disregard for the safety of the public, including compromising the safety of his own child by putting him in proximity to firearms and other weapons. As a parent, I find this absolutely appalling,” said Sgt. Lindsey Houghton of the CFSEU in the release.
Police seized an AR 15 assault rifle – the same type used in the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings in December 2012 – that was converted into a fully automatic gun, a sub machine gun, prohibited Glock auto switches, silencers, and numerous types of “pinned” and “unpinned” magazines.
Upon a search of Friesen’s Langley home and nearby workshop, police also found more guns, prohibited devices, and tools used to manufacture them.
Friesen is in custody in Surrey awaiting trial on the Canadian charges. He previously was convicted on various drug and property-related offences as well as attempted murder and has a lifetime firearms ban.
He is also connected with several mid-level B.C. gangs, according to police.
With files from CTV Vancouver’s Nafeesa Karim
