Warren Gates, Stolen Handgun Trafficking, IL

Warren Gates, a 49-year-old convicted felon from Chicago, was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison for trafficking 24 stolen handguns, most of which were ripped from a cargo train in a brazen South Side heist. U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp Jr. handed down the sentence Wednesday in Chicago federal court, citing the direct link between stolen firearms and street violence tearing through the city.

Gates admitted to buying 17 of the stolen guns from co-defendants who looted approximately 111 firearms from a railroad car on April 12, 2015. The weapons, manufactured by Ruger at a plant in New Hampshire, were en route to Spokane, Wash., when the train was parked overnight on the South Side. That night, thieves broke seals and locks on the railcar and vanished with the shipment — one of the largest firearm thefts in recent regional memory.

According to court documents, Gates, a prohibited person due to prior felony convictions, purchased the guns solely to resell them for profit. He moved quickly, selling 11 of the firearms before law enforcement closed in. None of the buyers were licensed, and the weapons entered the underground market where stolen, untraceable guns fetch premium prices among criminals barred from legal purchases.

In the government’s sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Parente laid out the danger: “The defendant purchased these stolen firearms for the purpose of reselling them to those in our community who would be most interested in purchasing stolen, unregistered and untraceable firearms from an unlicensed firearms dealer.” Parente added, “Those individuals who are willing to pay premiums for firearms on the black market are the individuals who cannot legally purchase firearms and those individuals who cause the most damage to this city by their possession of illegal firearms.”

Of the 111 firearms stolen in the April 2015 rail robbery, only 16 have been recovered — some turning up at crime scenes across the Chicago area. Authorities say the continued circulation of these weapons poses an ongoing threat to public safety. The investigation was led by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with critical support from the Chicago Police Department and the Norfolk Southern Railroad Police Department.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mr. Parente. Zachary T. Fardon, then United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and George Lauder, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Chicago Field Division, announced the sentencing. Gates’ conviction stands as a rare capture in the shadow supply chain feeding Chicago’s illegal gun trade — a pipeline built on theft, greed, and violence.