NEWS BRIEF: Makers of illegal gun silencers targeted by ATF

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is cracking down on the proliferation in Georgia of unregistered silencers for guns, also known as suppressors. The bureau is targeting companies that sell solvent traps and fuel filters that skirt the law and can be modified into silencers. A company in Carroll County called Hawk Innovative Tech was recently raided by ATF agents who seized $300,000 in cash and thousands of silver bars and coins, alleging in court filings that the funds can be traced “to acts of mail and wire fraud, smuggling, and money laundering.” Benjamin P. Gibbons, an agent in the ATF’s Atlanta field office, said, “The possession of unregistered suppressors marketed as ‘solvent traps’ or ‘fuel filters’ is a crime that has a direct impact on public safety.” ajc.com