Marion, SC, fireworks company guilty of smuggling

A Marion-based fireworks company pleaded guilty to federal charges of smuggling Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney for South Carolina said in a news release.

Atlas Importers, Inc. could be fined $500,000 when the sentence is imposed at a future date, the government said.

The company was accused of repeatedly importing fireworks that had been “modified to change the powder ratios” to more “effect powders” and less “launch powders” than is currently approved for sale in the U.S. In order to hide the illegal fireworks, the company admitted they had been left off the shipping container invoices.

Atlas Importers sells wholesale to fireworks retailers in South Carolina offering more than 700 items for backyard consumer display, the company says on its website.

John Casey has been selling consumer fireworks for 65 years in Columbia at Casey’s Fireworks on Rosewood Drive. He says the technology for fireworks has changed dramatically in recent years and he doesn’t know why anyone would want to mess with the legal formulas available in fireworks for sale today.

“There is a lot of variety you can have within the legal limit,” he said.

Colorful rockets, noisy flash-bangs, sparklers, even noiseless fireworks are available at reasonable prices, he said. Altering with the allowed powder ratios to make them fly higher, bang louder or burn brighter is needless overkill and would just push prices higher.

The case against Atlas Importers, Inc. was investigated by the US Department of Transportation’s Inspector General.

This story was originally published March 1, 2017 at 8:09 PM with the headline "Marion, SC, fireworks company guilty of smuggling."