On March 14, 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced that Michael John Pellicione, a licensed gun dealer who operated Mike’s Gun Shop out of his home in Port St. Lucie, Florida, had been sentenced to 15 months in prison, a year of supervised release, and a $7,500 fine for selling guns “off the books.”
Pellicione pleaded guilty in December 2024 to five counts of failing to keep proper records of gun sales. Authorities say as a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL), he was required to record firearms he added to or removed from his inventory in his acquisition and disposition (A&D) book, but failed to document at least six guns.
According to court documents, Pellicione helped facilitate private “off book” gun sales to his regular customers, including straw purchasers who trafficked guns to South Florida and beyond. Authorities said that on more than one occasion, Pellicione neglected his duty as an FFL by selling a firearm without completing the required paperwork or conducting a background check.
the gun trafficking scheme
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) launched an investigation into Pellicione on April 1, 2024, after police in Canada and Jamaica recovered guns that were traced back to two stores in Port St. Lucie, including Mike’s Gun Shop. Both guns were also linked to the same buyer, a person only identified as J.F.
A review of other recent gun traces from Jamaica to Port St. Lucie identified another buyer, a local police officer, who told investigators that he had sold the gun — a Hellcat 9mm pistol — and several others to Pellicione in the past 10 years. The Hellcat is produced by a Croatian manufacturer, HS Produkt, and imported to the U.S. exclusively by Springfield Armory. The officer contacted Pellicione, who said that a relative of J.F. bought the pistol. This person was identified as K.B.
When ATF agents interviewed Pellicione, he told them that he had sold 40 firearms to J.F., K.B., and two other “close associates.” Pellicione also admitted that he sold the Hellcat 9mm pistol to K.B. in a private sale without keeping a record of the transaction or running a background check. He said it was the only time he did not log a gun in his inventory records.
Pellicione explained that he regularly facilitated such “off book” sales for private sellers. Whenever he acquired used guns, he would send pictures, descriptions, and prices of the firearms to regular customers like J.F. and set dates and times for the sellers and customers to meet — “across the street from his business,” he claimed, “so that he was not involved in the transfer.”
When interviewed, J.F. told investigators that he and his associates bought guns for other people in the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area. According to the complaint, J.F. had such a good relationship with the 76-year-old Pellicione that he called him “Uncle Mike.”
more sales discrepancies
In a follow-up interview, investigators asked Pellicione about the other guns he acquired from the local police officer. They showed him two bills of sale, which the officer provided, from June 2023 for firearms that were not recorded in Pellicione’s A&D book. In response, Pellicione admitted that he also sold those guns “off the books” — without transaction records or background checks — like the Hellcat he admitted to previously.
In the criminal complaint, investigators say they collected text messages between Pellicione and J.F. dating back to May 2021 where Pellicione advertised guns for sale with the terms “off the books,” “OTB,” and “no paper.” In one text from January 23, 2024, Pellicione sent J.F. the message “LT SELLING NEW 9MM SAINT W/ GOODIES$1000 OTD,” meaning he was selling a Springfield Saint 9mm AR pistol belonging to the local police officer for $1,000 “out the door.”
After the follow-up interview, investigators say Pellicione delivered three bills of sale to the local police officer, including one for the Saint 9mm pistol, on April 17, 2025, or three months after the sale. They also say he logged the gun as being transferred to a buyer on April 7, 2025, in his A&D book. However, when investigators searched his shop, they found the gun in his inventory. When pressed about the discrepancies, Pellicione said, “What am I supposed to do, self-incriminate?”
fueling crime in nearby countries
After Pellicione entered his guilty plea and forfeited his FFL, prosecutors filed a memo arguing that Pellicione “blatantly disregarded” his responsibilities as an FFL “to properly record and track firearm sales.” According to prosecutors, Pellicione “undermin[ed] the licensing system” and “directly contributed to the illegal trafficking of firearms across international borders, further exacerbating the growing problem of gun violence.”
Prosecutors also outlined the consequences of disregarding the law. Citing federal data and news reports, they identified Florida as the third-leading source of crime guns found in Ontario, Canada, between 2018 and 2021. They also said that at least 200 guns are trafficked from the U.S. to Jamaica each month, fueling violent crime in the Caribbean region, where violent deaths are three times higher than the global average.
Finally, prosecutors argued that Pellicione irresponsibly sold firearms previously owned by police officers: “Certainly, one would expect any law enforcement officer to believe that the firearms, sold to [Pellicione], would be handled properly, not sold ‘off-the-books.’” They added, “We may never know just how many former law enforcement officers’ weapons he peddled to shady characters, off the books!”