Cody Wilson, 3D-Printed Gun Pioneer, Arrested in Taiwan
Wilson's passport was revoked following a warrant for his arrest in Texas for having paid sex with an underage girl.
Cody Wilson, maker of the first 3D-printed plastic gun, has been arrested in Taiwan.
Wilson runs Defense Distributed, a company that deals in software and hardware to facilitate home weapon printing and machining. Earlier this week, Texas police issued a warrant for his arrest.
Wilson, they claimed, found a woman on sugardaddymeet.com, a website that requires all users to assert they are 18 or over, then met her and paid for sex with her. Police say the woman was actually 16, which made that act a violation of Texas penal code 22.011 (A)(2)(a), regarding sex with a minor, which is legally considered sexual assault regardless of consent or payment.
While Taiwan has no formal extradition treaty with the U.S., and Wilson was not said to have been doing anything directly criminal in Taiwan, the press there reports that he was arrested without incident because the U.S. had revoked his passport, making his mere presence in Taiwan illegal. (The U.S. government has the power to revoke the passports of people facing felony arrest warrants.)
Wilson was then, according to The New York Times, "delivered…to the National Immigration Agency" in Taiwan. It is expected to deport him to the U.S. to face those charges, which carry a potential 2 to 20 years in prison and $10,000 fine.