A US man has been arrested for mailing an assault rifle in a DVD player and 9mm pistol in an Xbox computer game console to buyers in Australia.
Adam Joseph Bunger, 33, is also accused of attempting to ship an "Uzi style pistol" to a person in the United Kingdom.
Bunger, who allegedly used the alias "John Smith", was arrested after a package sent via express post and declared as "one broken Xbox" was intercepted on June 21 in Sydney.
"An examination of the Xbox interior cavity revealed two empty magazines, spring, slide, barrel and barrel bushing," David S Hayes, a special agent for the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told the US District Court in Kentucky on Thursday.
"The hard drive cover was removed and a pistol receiver identified as a Star Echeverria, Modelo Super 9mm pistol was recovered."
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The Australian Federal Police alerted their US counterparts and an international investigation began.
Australian authorities interviewed the intended recipient of the package and he said he purchased the firearm via a website called Black Market Reloaded, according to Hayes.
Black Market Reloaded is a secretive German-based site connecting buyers and sellers of illicit items, including guns, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs and counterfeit clothes, birth certificates and other documentation.
Items are bought and sold via the online currency Bitcoins.
The investigation allegedly found that on July 8 a "John Smith" shipped three packages, two by international express mail and one by global priority, from a Bowling Green post office.
A trap was set and on July 13 the post office seized two more packages shipped by "John Smith", one to Australia and the other to the UK, according to court documents.
The post office clerk identified the shipper as a "white male", about 30-years-old with a shaved head and tattoos on both arms who allegedly told her he "shipped broken Xbox's, Nintendos and DVD players".
In one package addressed to a UK address US authorities allegedly found a disassembled "Uzi style pistol" with an "obliterated serial number" and "a suspected flash suppressor".
"The package addressed to an individual located in Australia was found to contain various firearm parts consisting of a magazine, butt stock and fore stock for an assault rifle," Hayes told the court.
"The items were concealed in a DVD player."
On August 8 authorities seized a Sweden-bound package allegedly posted by Bunger containing "a disassembled Taurus Model PT-22 .22 calibre pistol" hidden in a metal computer switching power supply box.
Bunger is charged with shipping a firearm in foreign commerce, delivering or causing to be delivered a firearm to an unlicensed person and shipping in foreign commerce a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
