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ST. PETERSBURG — The federal government has walked away from a complicated sting operation in which it accused a St. Petersburg arms dealer and 21 others of trying to bribe a foreign government.
"They just threw in the towel," said Todd Foster of Tampa, attorney for St. Petersburg defendant John Benson Wier III.
The government asked a judge Tuesday to dismiss the case. It had spent weeks prosecuting nine defendants in two trials in Washington without a conviction.
In the sting, defendants met with people they thought were from the African nation of Gabon to sell $15 million worth of arms for the country's presidential guard. The transaction had a twist — dealers were told to inflate the price and kick back money to the minister of defense.
After 2010 arrests, everyone learned the Gabonese officials were FBI agents or informants.
In dismissing the case Tuesday at the Department of Justice's request, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon called it "the end of a long and sad chapter."
"Hopefully this case will be a teaching tool in the future in how not to set up sting operations," said Foster, the Tampa attorney.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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