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A U.S. Navy veteran, who was reportedly sailing in international waters until Russian authorities forced him to dock his yacht with a firearm onboard, has been sentenced to five years in prison for smuggling weapons, court officials announced Monday.
The court system of Krasnodar Krai identified the man as Charles Wayne Zimmerman, 58, whom U.S. officials had reported missing before Monday’s announcement. A website set up in support of Zimmerman described him as a U.S. Navy veteran, a father of two and an electrician, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
According to local authorities, Zimmerman docked his yacht in the Russian port city of Sochi on June 19, 2025, after departing from North Carolina in July 2024 and sailing through several European countries. During border control in Sochi, Zimmerman allegedly failed to declare a firearm onboard. Authorities said an inspection later uncovered the weapons and ammunition, which they claimed had been purchased by Zimmerman prior to entering Russia.
At the subsequent court hearing, “the defendant pleaded guilty in full,” the court system in Krasnodar Krai said. Records show Zimmerman was convicted in October and that the Sochi court’s verdict was upheld two months later by the Krasnodar Regional Court, the AP reported.
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Zimmerman’s sister, Robin Stultz, claimed that her brother was wrongfully detained in Russia, saying that Russian authorities forced him to pilot his vessel to Sochi from international waters, according to the AP.
He was “sailing in international waters when he was intercepted by the Russian Navy and forced to motor 22 hours to Sochi,” Stultz added in a statement to CBS News.
Zimmerman reportedly disclosed his weapons but was charged anyway, Stultz said, claiming that his arrest was a strategic move by Russia to use him as leverage in a potential U.S. exchange.
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“He was sailing from the U.S. to New Zealand, so of course, he had a firearm on board,” she told the AP in a statement. “You can’t just call 911 if something goes wrong out at sea. He voluntarily disclosed it to them and they charged him with arms smuggling. This is an obvious set-up to get another American they can trade. He needs to be declared wrongfully detained.”
His sister added that she “wouldn’t trust any ‘confession’ the Russians claim he’s given,” and alleged that Russian authorities had denied her brother access to U.S. diplomatic representatives since his arrest.
Washington has accused Moscow of imprisoning U.S. nationals to use them as bargaining chips for Russian spies held abroad. Since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022, dozens of Westerners, including Americans, have been detained in Russia, with many later released in prisoner exchanges.
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Russian authorities reported that Zimmerman decided to sail to Sochi on his own after reportedly meeting a Russian woman online. While he reportedly did not know it was illegal to store weapons on his yacht when docking, authorities said that “ignorance of the law does not exempt from liability.”
“He met a girl online who lives in Kazan and decided to join her in Russia on his yacht,” the Krasnodar Krai court system said. “Before setting out, he didn’t bother to research Russian laws and assumed that the weapons he kept on board for self-defense should simply remain on board at all times.”
A video released by the regional court shows a docked yacht, a single black hunting rifle in a case and two boxes of Remington rifle-caliber cartridges.
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On Sept. 6, 2024, the U.S. Coast Guard’s East region issued a missing person alert for then-57-year-old Charles Zimmerman, who had departed North Carolina aboard his 35-foot green-and-white-hulled vessel, named the Trude Zena. He was reportedly heading to New Zealand, with planned stops in the Mediterranean Sea.
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