b>Crawford County man charged by ATF; court papers sealed</b><br>

Erie (PA) Times-News ^ | 3/26/2004 | JOHN BARTLETT

[Crawford Co Libertarian]

State police and federal agents blocked Williamson Road while searching the gun shop of Darrell Sivik. (JACK HANRAHAN/Erie Times-News)	By JOHN BARTLETT john.bartlett@timesnews.com MEADVILLE: A Crawford County gun dealer known for his outspoken criticism of government power was arrested on firearm violations Thursday after heavily armed federal agents raided his West Mead home and adjacent business. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives served a search warrant and took self-proclaimed "patriotic, Christian American" Darrell Sivik into custody at about 9 a.m. He was arraigned at about 4 p.m. in Erie before Federal Magistrate Susan Paradise Baxter. The courtroom was ordered closed, and the search and arrest warrants were sealed and not available. Federal officials said the documents will be made available Monday. Sivik in past interviews called himself a patriotic, Christian American, a member of the Patriot Movement and a member of the Pennsylvania Militia. "By virtue of being a citizen, you have an obligation to be a militia member," he said in a 1998 interview.
Federal agents spent more than five hours searching Sivik's Williamson Road home, occasionally hauling out materials - most of which appeared to be files and metal ammunition boxes - and placing them in their vehicles. The agents arrived in more than a dozen cars, vans and sport utility vehicles, one of which got stuck in a field across the road from Sivik's home. State police established roadblocks about 100 yards both east and west of Sivik's home, turning back all traffic until about 2:20 p.m. A half-dozen ATF agents wearing helmets and other combat gear and armed with pistols and what appeared to be fully automatic carbines clustered a small distance away in a field. Agents in combat gear also set up, at least briefly, on two nearby roads that are parallel to Williamson Road. The agents who searched the house wore casual clothes. Two police dogs also were at the scene. Several times, agents at the scene would leave and then later return. At 11:40 a.m., an agent drove into the scene in Sivik's Jeep, followed by another agent in a minivan. The jeep was left parked along the road in front of Sivik's home when agents left the scene. At about noon a small, single-engine plane arrived, flying low overhead. It circled more than a half-dozen times, as if deliberately scouting the area, before departing. At 12:20 p.m. a UPS van reached the roadblock and the driver said he had a delivery for Sivik. An ATF agent came out to the roadblock and talked with the driver. He checked the package addressed to Sivik and then returned it to the driver and sent him on his way. ATF and other law enforcement personnel wrapped up their search at about 2 p.m. A few minutes later they withdrew the roadblock and left the area in a convoy without explanation. The agents were apparently drawn from a wide area, with license plates on their vehicles including Indiana, Maryland and Virginia, as well as Pennsylvania. Sivik's wife, Kathleen Sivik, who was then left home alone, refused to talk to reporters. A few minutes later the couple's son, Darrell Sivik Jr., arrived and went into the home. After about 20 minutes he came out and spoke briefly with reporters. "All I know at this point is basically the ATF served a search warrant and took into custody my father and transported him to Erie," Darrell Sivik Jr. said. "That's pretty much all we know." Darrell Sivik Jr. said he did not learn of the search and arrest of his father until later in the afternoon after returning from a business trip. "Everyone is fine. We just don't know what is going on," he said. He expressed no surprise at the number and armament of the federal agents. "We all know what happened in the past with ATF," Darrell Sivik Jr. said, without elaborating. "They will bring themselves prepared." Sivik, who operates a gun shop and gunsmithing service, has often been in the news for leading tax protests, burning the U.N. flag in demonstrations in Meadville's Diamond Park, and rallying opponents of federal firearms laws. Several times Sivik has run for local office. He also gained notoriety for battling with the Federal Communications Commission over a low-power radio station he operates at 88.3 FM and calls Braveheart Radio. "All we know is, (the federal agents) are claiming a violation of firearms laws," his son said. JOHN BARTLETT can be reached at (814) 724-6979, 870-1723 or by e-mail.
Last changed: March 26. 2004 6:15AM
Related Articles: Sivik denied bail Man made machine gun

[agitator]

[Triple]

Are the warrants and charges public now?

If he has een in custody for 5 days, surely the charges are public information.

[Triple]

bump

[Triple]

bump

[gcruse]

Welcome to FR. The fact that they sealed the records only temporarily seems odd.

[gcruse]

2 Meadville men held on gun charges

Federal agents raid gunsmithing shop of militia leader

Wednesday, March 31, 2004 By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A Meadville area militia leader whose gunsmithing shop was raided by federal agents last week has been charged with illegal possession and transfer of a machine gun, along with another Crawford County man tied to the militia movement.

Darrell W. Sivik, leader of the Braveheart Militia and a man known for his battles with the Federal Communications Commission over the unlicensed "Braveheart Radio" station he runs from his West Mead home, was being held yesterday in the Erie County Prison following a detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Erie.

Also being held there was George Bilunka, of Atlantic, Crawford County, who is named in a separate criminal complaint as a co-conspirator with Sivik in the transfer of an illegal machine gun.

Bilunka, a member of the Christian American Patriot Survivalists, has a detention hearing tomorrow.

The men were arrested last week when state police and agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force raided Sivik's home business, Sivik's Gunsmithing on Williamson Road, and seized a stockpile of machine guns.

Although testimony in court on Monday indicated that Sivik had said he also possessed surface-to-air missiles, none was found in the search.

The men are charged with conspiring to transfer a 9 mm Luger machine gun that was not registered in the National Firearms Transfer Record, in violation of federal law.

The raid on the gun shop was based on an undercover investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the terrorism task force and police.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed in Erie on Monday, an undercover officer wearing a wire met with Bilunka at his house in Atlantic on Jan. 12.

At that time, Bilunka said he had a machine gun in his basement that he had bought from Sivik.

Bilunka told the officer that he bought the weapon, sometimes called a "sten" or "burp" gun, from Sivik so he wouldn't have to register it with the government, according to an ATF affidavit. He also said he knew the penalty for possession was prison.

When the undercover officer asked Bilunka if Sivik needed an existing gun to make a machine gun, Bilunka said, "No, I think he might even have a few."

On Feb. 20, the officer and Bilunka went to Sivik's shop. Out of earshot of other customers, Sivik talked with Bilunka, then all three went outside to discuss the sale of the machine gun for $300.

The officer paid $210 down, and Sivik said he'd have to pay the rest if he wanted the gun by Feb. 25.

According to the affidavit, Sivik gave the officer detailed instructions on how to wrap and bury the gun for storage, saying at one point, "only show it to people you know you can trust 100 percent."

When the officer asked if his model was the same one Bilunka bought, Sivik said, "Yeah, it's all the same model, yeah."

After Bilunka indicated Sivik had a "bunch" of machine guns, Sivik said, "Yeah, this one will probably be a little better because we've learned in our experience of working with them, done a little better machining," the affidavit says.

On Feb. 25, the officer went back to the gun shop, paid the balance and received the gun.

Sivik had one more bit of information, however, indicating that he had forgotten to drill enough holes in the barrel. He told the officer that he could use a hand drill to finish the job.

Earlier this month, the ATF test-fired the weapon and determined that it is a functioning machine gun.

While Sivik sits behind bars and faces a long prison term if convicted, he has many supporters among militia members. According to at least one Internet posting, they see his arrest as another incursion by the "jackbooted thugs" of the federal government into the private lives of Americans.

Sivik, who leads an annual United Nations flag burning ceremony in Meadville to protest U.S. involvement in that organization, has long denounced the government on "Braveheart Radio."

His radio co-host, who identified himself online as Gabby Hayes, offered this message of defiance after the arrest last week: "Father God is looking out for Darrell, because if anyone had been with him, if I had been with him, he would have found the nerve to resist, and we would both be dead now."

---

(Torsten Ove can be reached at tove@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2620.)

[kingu]

Ahh, yes, nothing like producing and distributing unregistered automatic firearms.

Hmm. $300... Seems sort of cheap.

[gcruse]

Yes, the needle on my sympathy meter got a good whiplashing, too.

[Dan from Michigan]

$300 seems REAL cheap.

I'll just say my BS detector is on full alert right now.

[MineralMan]

Yet another shining example of someone making things more and more difficult for legitimate firearms dealers and owners. These nutcases are contributing to the anti-gun folks in ways they don't even understand.

[Fiddlstix]

Bang

[Poohbah]

It sounds like this guy is manufacturing them himself. If he's using some plans I've seen published, he's (a) only spending about $5-10 for materials, and very little time, and (b) making something extremely dangerous to the user.

[gcruse]

I suspect "Crawford Co Libertarian" will be a one-hit wonder, too.

[looscnnn]

Welcome. A word of warning about some members on this site, some of them don't like Libertarians (or independants/3rd party members) or anyone that will decry Bush or the administration for any liberal advancements that they persue.

[looscnnn]

I find it ironic that he becomes the leader of the Braveheart militia. I wonder if it is even a real militia, I bet it just happens to be the name of the fans of the radio show. Kinda like Rush's fans are called Dittoheads.

[FierceDraka]

The raid on the gun shop was based on an undercover investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the terrorism task force and police.

So now it begins. To quote Emperor Palpatine from Return of the Jedi, "Everything is unfolding as I have forseen."

Now they are calling out the jackboots of the terrorism task force (created ostensibly to protect the citizens from foreign terrorists) being used against citizens who openly oppose the policies of the State. This was nothing but an intimidation move. In fact, I doubt the "illegal machine gun" ever existed, and was just the excuse they used to justify terrorizing this man and ransacking his home and business.

It seems like every week there is more news of the State becoming even more bold in its assault on our rights.

[Crawford Co Libertarian]

Seems I read that the warrants have been opened. I am guessing, but think that the warrants were temporarily sealed because they wanted Bilunka and others, too.

A more recent article, stated that some of the members of the militia group just handed over their burp guns when the ATF agents went to their homes. (Mind you, not at all the attitude that any of them had in conversations that I have had with any one of them.)

[Il Duce]

It seems like every week there is more news of the State becoming even more bold in its assault on our rights.

And why wouldn't they? Few people seem to have much of an interest in stopping it--other than lip service. After all, Bush, who is a good deal responsible for some of these things, is still polling at 85% on this website. Apparently most people don't feel that it is big enough of an issue to swing their vote. Their decision, but don't expect anything to change in Washington until things start changing at the ballot box.

[ValerieUSA]

Would you please clean up the sloppy headline? It bugs me ... and you never know. I might be armed.