- March 1, 2025
Despite an ATF bust that led to the arrest of its owner, Unbelievable Barber Shop in Palm Coast remains open for business.
The barber shop’s owner, Radbourne Mark Anthony Saleem, was arrested after trying to buy guns and silencers in a Nov. 15 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sting operation.
"The events that took place in no way shape or form reflect who we are," the barber shop said through its official twiter handle, @BestBarbersInPC. "Its been very difficult to support both the pain and the embarrassment brought upon us by one individual!"
Just a month before his arrest, Saleem was quoted in a Palm Coast Observer business profile saying he saw his barbershop as a place to serve as a positive influence on local youngsters.
"I’m helping these little guys see something different,” he said in the interview.
But a criminal complaint released by the ATF says Saleem used the barbershop to deal drugs, including marijuana, illegal prescription pills and a form of ecstasy.
He also met the confidential ATF informant he tried to buy guns from there. Law enforcement agents monitoring the shop recorded him saying he wanted to use the weapons to commit robberies and shoot police officers, and that he’d shot a cop in New York as a teenager.
“I wanna cap a couple of (profanity) police, because they crooked as (profanity)," he said to the informant.
According to the criminal complaint, the informant met Saleem at the barber shop and asked for $2,000 for a Sten machinegun, a pistol with a threaded barrel and an attached silencer, telling Saleem the items were “hot.” Saleem tried to bargain him down.
Saleem said he had robberies set up, and that he wanted the silencers and machine guns because he could "hit them, hit them for no reason ... rob them" and that he would "sell my soul to the devil just to get that (profanity)."
Saleem said he wanted to test the guns and silencer by shooting two men, one of whom had insulted his cousin.
ATF agents shot Saleem after he almost ran over an agent trying to escape, according to ATF spokesman Kevin Richardson, then chased him form Volusia County into Flagler County until he crashed into another car near a Palm Coast Hess station on U.S.1.
Saleem was hospitalized and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and with possessing an unregistered firearm, Richardson said.
