By Michael Isikoff
National Investigative Correspondent, NBC News
Federal agents are trying to determine how a suspected Ohio white supremacist with a felony conviction for manslaughter acquired a cache of 18 assault weapons and other firearms, along with high-capacity magazines and more than 40,000 rounds of ammunition, according to federal law enforcement officials and court documents reviewed by NBC News.
The storehouse of weapons was discovered late last month when FBI agents arrested Richard Schmidt, 47, the owner of a Bowling Green sporting goods store called Spindletop Sports Zone, on charges of marketing counterfeit goods -- such as football jerseys with NFL logos -- from China.
Although initially portrayed as a probe into the thriving international market for counterfeit clothing, the case took a surprising turn this week when the U.S. Attorneys Office in Cleveland unsealed search warrants and an indictment also charging Schmidt with illegal possession of firearms.
According to the documents, FBI agents who searched Schmidts sporting goods store and four trailers behind it, found a stash of weapons that included AR-15 assault rifles, Ruger and Sig Sauer semi-automatic pistols, bulletproof body armor and high-capacity magazines as well as ammunition.
The agents also discovered evidence of Schmidts ties to the neo-Nazi movement, documents show. Among the evidence seized, according to search warrants, was a video of a national convention of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement; bumper stickers of the National Alliance party, another neo-Nazi group; a Jewish 500 list -- a supposed roster of Jewish-owned businesses -- and paraphernalia from the Waffen SS, Adolph Hitlers Nazi military force in Germany from the early 1930s through World War II, according to the search warrants.
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