Plantation Man Admits Smuggling Gun Parts to Russia, Faces 40 Years

A Plantation, Florida businessman pleaded guilty this week to running a scheme that shipped export-controlled firearms components toward Russia, disguising the parts as everyday household goods to slip past U.S. customs inspectors. Maxim Larin, a 44-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in Russia, admitted his role in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday, closing out a case that began with his arrest at his South Florida home a year earlier.

Larin pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Nina R. Morrison to conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act and attempting to violate the Arms Export Control Act, according to a statement from the US Attorney EDNY. He operated several U.S.-based companies dealing in firearms components and tactical accessories, and as part of his plea deal he agreed to forfeit $250,000 along with dozens of weapons parts and accessories that had been seized from his Plantation residence, per the U.S. Department of Justice. He now faces up to 40 years in federal prison at sentencing.

The plea resolves an eight-count indictment that federal authorities unsealed in the Eastern District of New York after arresting Larin in Plantation on August 21, 2025. That original indictment charged him with conspiracy to defraud the United States, export violations, smuggling, and submitting false export information — allegations Hoodline covered at the time in Larin's initial arrest. Larin made his first court appearance in Miami before the case proceeded to New York, where it has now reached its conclusion on the liability question, with sentencing remaining as the next step.

How the Scheme Allegedly Worked

Prosecutors said that beginning as early as December 2022, Larin used his Florida-based firearms businesses to sell export-controlled weapons components to a co-defendant based in Saint Petersburg, Russia, routing the shipments through Kazakhstan to get around U.S. export controls. To avoid detection by border inspectors, Larin allegedly mislabeled firearm components such as triggers and charging handles as clothing, tools and a light switch on export paperwork, while also undervaluing the parcels, according to the same DOJ account.

Federal agents also intercepted a Raptar long-range target acquisition system in California after Larin acquired the ITAR-controlled device and arranged to ship it toward Kazakhstan through a U.S.-based co-conspirator. The device falls under International Traffic in Arms Regulations that bar its export without State Department authorization, underscoring how the alleged scheme reached beyond small firearm parts into higher-end tactical hardware.

Court filings cited a December 2022 email in which Larin warned his Russian co-defendant that parcels bearing images of soldiers on the packaging could raise red flags with customs officials, and he asked whether he should strip the original packaging to reduce the risk of discovery. Prosecutors pointed to that message as evidence of Larin's awareness that he was working to evade detection, the outlet's reporting notes.

Part of a Wider Federal Crackdown

Larin's case is one of several the Eastern District of New York has brought targeting networks accused of routing American-made military hardware to Russia through third countries following export bans imposed after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In a related case, Italian national Manfred Gruber pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to illegally export more than $540,000 worth of U.S.-manufactured ammunition through Italy and Kyrgyzstan to Russia for use in the war, and he was later sentenced to 18 months in prison this August, according to the Justice Department.

In January, Kyrgyz arms dealer Sergei Zharnovnikov was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court to 39 months in prison for conspiring to re-export U.S. firearms and ammunition — including rifles federal prosecutors said were used by Russian military snipers in Ukraine — through Kyrgyzstan, despite having signed contracts restricting such exports, per the Justice Department. Hoodline previously covered the Gruber case in a report on a secret Russia ammo route exposed earlier this year.

The investigation into Larin was conducted jointly by Homeland Security Investigations' New York office and the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security Office of Export Enforcement in New York, agencies that frequently coordinate on multi-agency operations targeting illegal military exports. With Larin's guilty plea now entered, sentencing stands as the remaining step in a case that federal authorities have framed as part of a broader effort to dismantle procurement networks moving weapons hardware toward Russia through intermediary nations like Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.