| Updated: 3/10/2009 10:20 am |
Published: 3/09/2009 6:00 pm |
By DANIEL SHEA
Associated Press Writer
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A Russellville doctor accused of stockpiling fully automatic machine guns and grenades has a father who is a known international arms dealer, a federal agent testified Monday.
Federal agents also investigated Dr. Randeep Mann for smuggling illegal anabolic steroids and anti-anxiety medication manufactured in India into the U.S., said David Oliver, a special agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Oliver said Mann and his father Kuldip Mann both served in the Indian
military and had access to the weaponry.
ATF agents previously said they found grenade launchers, grenades and about 110 fully automatic machine guns on Mann's property during a search Wednesday. The grenades, fired from launchers attached to military rifles, can't be obtained in the
U.S. by anyone other than the armed forces, Oliver said.
"If one went off the room today, it would kill everyone in the courtroom," Oliver said.
Oliver said another doctor previously told State Police troopers that Mann also had a military-grade explosive, C-4, in his home.
The ATF agent said police found none of the explosive in the home during their recent search.
Oliver said Kuldip Mann had crossed into the U.S. 325 times since March 2007, including eight times in a heavy truck. Randeep Mann crossed the border more than 120 times, the federal agent said.
As for the machine guns, Oliver said at least four weren't registered with the federal government as required.
"If you were shot with it, the round would cut you in half," Oliver said.
Mann appeared Monday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate H. David Young for a bond hearing. He faces charges over not properly registering the automatic weapons. Mann's lawyer had not had an opportunity to respond to the charges by late Monday afternoon.
At the hearing, the Arkansas State Police confiscated Mann's concealed-handgun permit, said police spokesman Bill Sadler. Sadler told The Associated Press that the license will be suspended until Mann is convicted or acquitted of the charges against him.
Mann, 50, is an internal medicine specialist who lives in London, Ark., in the Arkansas River valley about 65 miles west of Little Rock. He was sanctioned by the state Medical Board on previous occasions, most recently in 2006 after several of his patients died from a lethal mix of drugs or an overdose of prescription medicine. Mann maintained the issue was not the prescriptions but the patients' abuse of the drugs.
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Associated Press Writer Jon Gambrell contributed to this
report.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
