A federal grand jury this week indicted a Fairbanks gun dealer on charges that he plotted to pay $40,000 to have someone murdered in another state.
Eric Donald Grabber, who ran unsuccessfully for the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly in 2010, is charged with sending a person to Indiana with the intent of killing an unnamed victim in Indiana or Michigan, according to the Tuesday indictment.
Grabber, 55, is the sole proprietor of Art, Arms & Ammo in Fairbanks and a holds a federal firearm license, public records show. No one answered a call to the business on Thursday afternoon.
"I think he runs that out of his house. He doesn't have a shop in town or anything," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Bottini. "He is, my understanding, a licensed (gun) dealer and manufacturer."
Bottini said he could not comment on the details of the case, including the alleged motive for the killing.
Grabber caused another person to travel out of state on Dec. 29, in hopes of advancing the murder-for-hire plot, the indictment says. On Jan. 3, he made a cell phone call from Alaska to Michigan in hopes the call would lead the contract killing of a person identified in the indictment only as G.L.C. Jr., according to the charges.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case.
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By KYLE HOPKINS