Cody Wilson, 3D Printed Gun Advocate, Arrested In Taiwan
Cody Wilson — the Texas man whose distribution of 3-D printer blueprints for guns has caused a recent stir — has been arrested in Taiwan, reported The New York Times.
Wilson was arrested by Taiwanese authorities after police in Texas charged the 30-year-old with the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl, as the Inquisitr detailed yesterday.
Police in Taiwan arrested Wilson in the Wanhua district of the country, who then handed him over to the National Immigration Agency to prepare for his extradition back to Texas.
On Wednesday, law enforcement officers in Austin, Texas announced that Wilson hadn’t boarded his flight back to the United States after the charges against him were made public. That saw the authorities in Texas mark Wilson as a fugitive, which called for the services of the U.S. Marshals — and their Lone Star Fugitive Task Force — to find him, which was quickly done alongside members representing the Taiwanese authorities.
Wilson received a tip — from a friend of the girl that has accused him of sexual assault — that he was under investigation before he left on his trip to Taiwan. That tip, coupled with the announcement of charges being filed, led to the possibility of him not returning as planned. When the announcement surrounding his charges was made, Wilson made sure to evade arrest in the foreign country.
BREAKING: New surveillance video from Taiwan shows Cody Wilson prior to his arrest. BACKGROUND STORY: https://t.co/SeGRsksck0 pic.twitter.com/fRj9kZ3Gex
— CBS Austin (@cbsaustin) September 21, 2018
An affidavit filed in Travis County court alleged that Wilson took the minor to a hotel in Austin on August 15, where he had sex with her and paid her $500 in cash. So far there has been no solicitation charge against Wilson, and he stands charged with sexual assault of a minor.
Wilson first gained notoriety for his plans to distribute 3-D printed guns via the internet, giving his blueprints to those who wanted to obtain them through a simple download. Gun rights activists supported his plans, arguing it was protected by the Second Amendment, while others argued that it was a risk to public safety — with Wilson not submitting background checks on those who had access to his blueprints.
In the end, those plans never fully came to fruition. A federal judge placed an injunction on Wilson’s plans to distribute the blueprints, pending a lawsuit — which was filed in multiple states and in Washington D.C. — finding resolution. The self-described “crypto-anarchist” responded to the injunction by saying that he would sell the files separately, and then send the blueprints to buyers by conventional mail, instead of simply uploading them to a website.
