VZCZCXRO9135
PP RUEHGA RUEHHA RUEHQU RUEHVC
DE RUEHON #0108/01 1012010
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 102010Z APR 08 ZDK
FM AMCONSUL TORONTO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2440
INFO RUCNCAN/ALCAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0071
RUEAHLC/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHDC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEWMFB/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEPINS/HQ BICE INTEL WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TORONTO 000108 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR PM/DTC - Blue Lantern Coordinator 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETTC KOMC ETRD CA
SUBJECT: Blue Lantern Level 3 Post-Shipment End-Use Check on Questar 
International 
 
Ref: (A) State 20227 (notal) (B) 06 Ottawa 3660 (notal) 
 
TORONTO 00000108  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Sensitive But Unclassified - Protect Accordingly. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  On April 2 ConOff and Pol/Econ Chief conducted a 
Blue Lantern end-use check at Questar International (CA)'s office in 
Barrie, Ontario.  Questar maintains hand-written detailed end-use 
records for each imported weapon.  The end-use details we obtained 
are being e-mailed to PM/DTC.  The company appears to fill a 
Canadian market niche, custom-building guns for target shooters, 
collectors, and law enforcement officials across Canada.  The 
Questar facility in Barrie is located in Mark Herzog's home, but 
appears to be extremely secure.  Herzog has employed a former Barrie 
policeman and reportedly has a close working relationship with 
Canadian law enforcement officials.  Questar expects to make some 
significant sales to Canadian security and law enforcement officials 
in the next year.  We found no derogatory information on Herzog or 
Questar.  End Summary. 
 
------------------- 
End-Use Information 
------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Per ref (A), on April 2 ConOff and Pol/Econ Chief met with 
Mark Herzog for about three hours at the offices of Questar 
International (CA) located in Herzog's home in a residential suburb 
of Barrie, Ontario.  Questar International (CA) does not currently 
have an electronic filing system to record purchases and sales. 
Herzog maintains records for the Ontario Chief Firearms Officer 
(CFO) by handwriting pertinent weapon and transfer information into 
books provided by the Canadian government.  Herzog attempted to 
provide the specific information requested in ref (A) by researching 
the gun type in his CFO books.  As we watched, he searched through 
all five books and provided us with gun type, date of import and 
sale, name of purchaser, province of purchaser, and transfer number 
for the entries that relate to the licenses in question.  We are 
e-mailing this information directly to Kyle Ballard in an excel 
spreadsheet. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Herzog said he keeps separate paper files for each of his 
clients, telling us he refuses to conduct business over the phone - 
requiring a formal paper request for each order or subsequent change 
order.  He mentioned starting an Excel spreadsheet within the last 
few weeks to maintain an inventory of guns at his warehouse, but 
said he deletes the entries as soon as the weapons are transferred 
to their end-user. 
 
¶4. (SBU) On April 2 Herzog was unable to provide to us information 
about the Rock River license.  He told us he wanted to confer with 
Sean Orr to obtain an exact number of guns, the dates of import, and 
whether receivers, parts, or complete guns were imported before 
searching for the individual guns through the CFO book (Note: the 
book is organized by date of import.  End Note).  We received some 
additional information about the Rock River license from Mark Herzog 
on April 4.  This e-mail is also being forwarded to Kyle Ballard. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Herzog told us that he has imported many fewer weapons than 
the numbers contained on ref (A) licenses.  He indicated that Sean 
Orr (his partner with Questar International USA) files for the 
licenses, and then completes the form at the expiration of the 
license to document how many were used and how many were unused. 
Herzog claims to not maintain records of the actual U.S. licenses at 
his Canadian location.  In addition to the general licenses listed 
in ref (A), Herzog said he would have requested many single-use 
licenses for U.S.-export and sale to a specific Canadian client. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Questar imports many receivers (rather than complete 
weapons), and then builds the gun to the custom specifications of 
his end-users, according to Herzog.  He said he requires all 
purchasers to have a valid firearms license for any sale and 
accesses the Canadian system to search for the file by entering the 
license number and other personal information provided by the buyer. 
 He told us he is well aware of U.S. munitions list requirements to 
not retransfer weapons and claims to have never sold guns to anyone 
outside of Canada.  Herzog said he only once imported guns from a 
country other than the U.S. -- importing 6 or 7 custom master shop 
arms from Sigarms in Germany. 
 
------------------------- 
Site Security Information 
------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Herzog's home, which has no signage and looks like any of 
 
TORONTO 00000108  002 OF 003 
 
 
the other homes on the block from the outside, has multiple alarm 
and security devices, as well as two German Shepherd dogs.  The 
alarm system includes video surveillance with at least six cameras, 
key-panel codes for the exterior of the house, and a separate system 
for the basement "warehouse" of weapons and related parts.  The 
weapons storage room is accessed via a door with a keypad lock.  Gun 
parts and accessories are stored in the outer part of this area. An 
inner door to the "gun safe" room, where all of the assembled 
weapons are stored, has a fingerprint recognition security system. 
Herzog told us that all of the alarms are remotely monitored by 
Chubb Security Systems. 
 
¶8. (SBU) The onsite inventory varies, but Herzog said up to 50 guns 
might be stored there at any given time. More than 20 Glocks in 
their plastic cases were stacked on shelves in his inner gun safe 
room; Herzog told us he had just been to Port Huron, Michigan to 
pick up this shipment and could not ship them to their end-users 
until he finished processing the sales with the Canadian Firearms 
Centre (CFC). 
 
¶9. (SBU) Herzog's basement has a well-equipped gun-smithing workshop 
where he custom-builds the guns to client specifications.  Herzog 
showed us some "adjustable stocks" for target shooting which he said 
he had obtained from Israel, but he said demand for these has been 
low.  He indicated that some of his customers obtain and install 
their own stocks that are custom made to fit them.  We saw no 
evidence of telescoping stocks or threaded barrels during our visit. 
 
 
---------------------- 
Links to Barrie Police 
---------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Herzog claims to have a close working relationship with 
Barrie Police officials.  He said he and his assistant (and former 
Barrie Police Officer) Alex Wersonig (both certified armorers) have 
upgraded the guns used by the Barrie Police Tactical Support Team 
and continue to fix the guns as required.   Wersonig, who began 
working with Herzog about a year ago, told us they reconditioned 
about 25 Bushmaster guns from December 2005 to January 2006.  Herzog 
said he is trying to obtain permission to develop a Tactical Support 
Team training center in the Barrie area for Canadian law enforcement 
personnel.  Although this remains in preliminary planning stages, he 
indicated that the proposal has been presented to Canadian 
government authorities. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Additional Background on Questar 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Herzog told us the company has been in operations for 
approximately two-and-a-half years.  He said he started the company 
after he retired as a way to incorporate his target-shooting hobby 
into a business.  Herzog displays his numerous Police Pistol 
Competition trophies and plaques in the weapons safe. 
Originally, he said he partnered the business with the "Hawk Shop," 
a gun shop in Port Huron, Michigan.  He created a business 
relationship with the owner's son, Sean Orr, who now runs Questar 
International USA.  Every 3-4 weeks, Herzog and/or Wersonig drive to 
Port Huron to pick up the guns and transport them back to his 
office/home. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Herzog mentioned to us in passing that he was cited for 
unsafe storage of firearms by Canadian law enforcement in 1989 but 
that he has been "pardoned" and the conviction expunged from his 
record in Canada.  He indicated that U.S. CBP officers recently 
began sending him to secondary because of an exchange of criminal 
conviction information between the U.S. and Canada. 
 
---------------------------------------- 
Future Sales to Canadian Law Enforcement 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶13. (SBU) Herzog indicated Questar will be selling about 60 Rock 
River guns to the guard force at the New Brunswick nuclear plant in 
the near future.  He said he hopes to make some additional sales to 
Canadian police forces within the next year. 
 
¶14. (SBU) Comment:  During our three hour site visit, we saw no 
evidence of unauthorized items such as threaded barrels or folding 
stocks.  Though Questar's record-keeping is not user-friendly, it 
appeared to us to be very complete and, to provide the level of 
detail that Canadian law enforcement officials would need to track 
 
TORONTO 00000108  003 OF 003 
 
 
down specific end-users of the imported weapons.  Herzog was very 
open with us and very willing to provide additional information if 
requested.  He indicated to us that his primary customers are target 
shooters, collectors, or law enforcement officials.  He said he is 
serving a niche market by helping Canadian firearms collectors 
obtain U.S. export licenses and physically import weapons that they 
have identified for purchase into Canada.  Though we can understand 
that this could unsettle some Canadians, we found no derogatory 
information on Herzog or Questar.  End comment. 
 
¶15. (U) Post requests PM/DTC include ConGen Toronto as an addressee 
for all Blue Lantern cables regarding companies based in Ontario. 
 
NAY