Video World in Red Hook Plaza also sells guns. The guns are not advertised up front in the video part of the store; that part of the business is in a back room. The store is within 200 yards of Ivanna Eudora Kean High School. The owner is federally licensed.

He was a licensed Virgin Islands gun dealer, but when federal firearms agents went to look for his place of business, they couldn't find him. And for good reason: The St. Thomas dealer was sitting in a prison in Atlanta for drug charges.

He is one of 36 gun dealers whose licenses have either been yanked or are in serious jeopardy following a crackdown by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau agents and local authorities.

The crackdown followed a six-month probe of the territory's 52 licensed gun dealers. The investigation was conducted by a joint task force of ATF agents; local prosecutors with the Attorney General's Office; and investigators for the Licensing and Consumer Affairs Department.

The Attorney General's Office will not release the names of the 36 dealers, and the ATF now has no agents in the territory to further monitor the dealers or answer questions about the violations charges.

The task force found violations dating as far back as 1980s. Among the findings:

• Two dealers had used their licenses to purchase guns for export. One dealer exported guns to Anguilla and the other to the British Virgin Islands.
• One St. Thomas dealer had so many violations the task force recommended that the ATF carry out a criminal investigation.

• Two dealers openly sell guns from the back of their cars. At least one has been seen in housing projects delivering weapons.

• Some dealers have been selling guns for more than six years without ATF or local licenses.

• Most people with gun dealer's licenses did not have a secure place to store or keep weapons, as is required by the ATF.
• Many gun dealers seem unaware of local gun laws and which weapons are outlawed. One dealer purchased an A-K 47, although the Russian assault rifle is illegal in the territory.
• Some dealers kept their records so badly that the task force had no way of knowing how many guns they really sold and who bought them.

The investigation, which started earlier this year, identified only six dealers, three on St. Thomas and three on St. Croix, who are in full compliance with local and federal law.

Here's what happened to the dealers with violations:

• 7 surrendered their licenses.
• 4 chose not to renew their expired licenses.
• 9 had problems that required follow-up inspections.
• 1 got a warning letter.
• 11 face losing their licenses; the task force recommended that they not get their licenses renewed.
• 3 lost their licenses.

Wade Enterprises in Sugar Estate is in a residential neighborhood and is within 200 yards of Charlotte Amalie High School. Wade is federally licensed.

Task force representatives say that local dealers who violate federal and local gun laws are a tiny fraction of the illegal gun trade.

Pete Anderson, head of the Police Department's gun unit, says about 50 percent of all illegal guns in the territory were purchased in Florida gun shops. He says Florida is followed by Texas and Louisiana as top sources of illegal guns.

Easy access to guns in those states make them inviting to Virgin Islanders who want to pick up weapons.

And many of the 2,000 workers at the Hess Oil refinery come from those states. Often they bring their guns, law officers say.

And just as often, rather than risk running into trouble trying to return home with them, they leave the guns here, law officers say, selling them privately and without much concern about whether the buyer has a license.