A California-based gun dealer has agreed to plead guilty to illegally importing armor-piercing bullets into the U.S., working with a former Walworth County police chief in the scam.
The plan failed when the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives halted the import, asking why a department of a half-dozen officers policing a town of 2,600 people south of Lake Geneva would need more than a million rounds of specialized ammunition.
Jacob Dowd has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. regarding the import of a half-million rounds of the ammunition from Bosnia, according to court documents.
Dowd’s attorney, Julie Linnen, declined to comment.
His brother, Darin Dowd, pleaded guilty to the same count in October 2025. His sentencing has been delayed several times. The brothers each face a maximum of five years in prison.
Plan to bring in ammunition using police
According to Jacob Dowd’s plea agreement, signed April 21, and search warrants in the case:
In 2021, the brothers enlisted then-police chief James Bushey of the Town of Linn Police Department in Walworth County to sign documents saying his department needed the ammunition.
Bringing such ammunition into the country is a violation of federal law, but there are exceptions, including if the ammunition is for a U.S. police department.
The brothers sought to import about 489,000 rounds of 7.62 x 54 mm armor-piercing incendiary ammunition from Smart Energeo Sistemi in Pale, a town in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to their gun-selling operation, United ForcesEnterprises LLC.
In exchange, the brothers promised to provide money to pay for the police department’s squad cars and other equipment for the department.
A Linn town board member said in July 2025 that Bushey is no longer with the town and officials have been fully cooperating with federal authorities.
The former chief, Bushey, is not charged and did not return calls and messages seeking comment.
Bushey told investigators he was approached by his former roommate, who was acting as a go-between with the Dowds. Bushey said he agreed to sign the paperwork saying 1.5 million of the rounds were needed for his department.
Chief misled town board about ammunition
At a meeting with the Town Board in June 2021, Bushey told board members he was entering into a creative deal with a gun dealer to get ammunition, which was in short supply at the time, donated to the department, according to the court documents.
But Bushey didn’t mention that he was falsely claiming to the ATF that all the ammunition was for the town department, or that he would be receiving cash payments in exchange for submitting the paperwork.
“TLPD is a small police department. It had no intention to purchase the 1.5 million rounds of API ammunition, had no funds to purchase that amount of ammunition, and had no legitimate use for that ammunition,” the plea agreement said.
Bushey sought a second purchase order of 3 million rounds of 12.7 x 99 mm armor-piercing incendiary brass case ammunition. This type of ammunition is used in firearms such as the Barrett M82 rifle and M2HB/M2 Browning belt-fed rifle.
“This is a large-caliber weapon and is rarely, if ever, used for law enforcement purposes and even more rare to be an API round,” the warrant said.
John Diedrich is an investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at jdiedrich@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Gun dealers used Wisconsin police chief in bid to import armor-piercing bullets
Reporting by John Diedrich, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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