Army lieutenant colonel charged with smuggling firearm parts from Russia, other countries

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A U.S. Army lieutenant colonel was arrested Thursday on charges that he illegally imported firearms parts from foreign countries including Russia and dealt weapons without a license, federal prosecutors said.

Frank Ross Talbert, 40, has been indicted on 21 charges including importing defense articles without a license, smuggling firearms parts into the U.S., firearms trafficking, possession of unregistered machine guns, transporting a machine gun without a license and dealing in firearms without a license, the U.S. attorney’s office in Nashville said in a news release.

Talbert pleaded not guilty during a Thursday hearing in federal court in Nashville, records showed. He was released from custody on certain conditions, including that he submit to supervision by a court officer, surrender his passport and restrict his travel only to Tennessee and Fort Campbell, Kentucky, records showed.

Talbert, a lieutenant colonel with the Army’s Explosives Ordinance Disposal at Fort Campbell, was arrested after federal law enforcement agents executed multiple search warrants during their investigation, prosecutors said.

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