Former Customs Agent Guilty in Gun Thefts

A former U.S. Customs Service agent who was responsible for safeguarding evidence from court cases has pleaded guilty to stealing 54 firearms that had been ordered destroyed after their owners’ convictions.

Salvator Oddo, 46, of Laguna Niguel pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to stealing the weapons. He faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in January, Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeffrey Rawitz said.

Rawitz said three of the weapons stolen by Oddo were automatic rifles, including an AK-47. The weapons were seized mostly in drug investigations, he said.

Oddo worked for customs from 1987 to 1998, when he resigned after the federal investigation began, authorities said.

“He was the evidence custodian and the person responsible for forwarding the firearms to Fort Benning [in Georgia] for destruction,” Rawitz said. “But instead of having them destroyed, he took them home.”

Rawitz said Oddo was also a firearms instructor for customs and had an extensive gun collection. Investigators recovered about 150 firearms from Oddo’s home in South Orange County, he said.