NATIONAL CITY : Store Reportedly Sent Guns to Africa

A National City sporting goods store investigated as part of a federal probe looking for illegal arms shipments to South Africa sent guns and ammunition to neighboring countries, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Federal shipping documents show Weisser Sporting Goods sent 200 shotguns to Botswana and small-arms ammunition to Namibia, which is legal, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Federal authorities are investigating whether those shipments might have been illegally diverted to South Africa as part of an organized effort to smuggle guns from neighboring African nations into South Africa in defiance of an international arms embargo.

The Africa Fund, an anti-apartheid group based in New York, contends that U.S. weapons exports have paralleled an increase in violence and killings in South African townships.

Weisser owner Jim Stephens of Poway couldn’t be reached at his home or business Wednesday.

Records show that Weisser sent 7,530 pounds of small-arms ammunition to Walvis Bay, Namibia, on Aug. 31, 1991, the newspaper reported.

Weisser also sent at least three shipments involving about 200 Winchester 12-gauge shotguns to the Charleshill Trading Co. of Ghanzi, Botswana, between May and November of 1990.