Haley, Collins Charged in Alabama Gun ‘Straw Purchase’ Scheme

Dayquan A. Haley, 23, of Boston, Massachusetts, and Darius Marquise Collins, 25, of Boston, Massachusetts, stood in federal court Wednesday facing charges tied to a sprawling interstate scheme to illegally funnel handguns from Alabama to Boston. The two are accused of orchestrating a ‘straw purchase’ ring that exploited loopholes in federal gun laws, using Alabama residents to buy weapons they couldn’t legally possess themselves. The case, unsealed in the Northern District of Alabama, exposes a cold calculus behind the trafficking of dozens of firearms across state lines.

Three Alabama men—Michael Tiree Coleman, 24, of Tuscaloosa; Jeremy Bernard Brown, 30, of Tuscaloosa; and Demarcus Montez Walker, 25, of Tuscaloosa—acted as the middlemen, purchasing at least 42 handguns from Wade’s Jewelry and Pawn in Tuscaloosa between November 2019 and March 2021. Coleman also bought three guns from Blue Bore Armory in Demopolis. All three men have pleaded guilty to giving false statements during the purchase of a firearm, admitting they lied on federal forms by claiming to be the actual buyers. Each faces up to 10 years in prison, with sentencing dates set for March and May 2022.

Haley and Collins, both Massachusetts residents, allegedly provided the money for the purchases and paid the straw buyers for their role. Because state laws in Massachusetts restrict handgun purchases and transport, the defendants turned to Alabama, where background checks and federal forms were exploited to legally buy firearms that were never meant to stay in the South. The ATF Birmingham Field Division first caught wind of the operation after a referral from the ATF’s Crime Gun Intelligence Center flagged multiple suspicious purchases from Wade’s Jewelry and Pawn.

The trail of violence left behind is chilling. On March 11, 2020, Haley was stopped in South Carolina and found in possession of 14 handguns—all purchased by Walker in Alabama. Later that year, on July 20, police in Uniontown, Alabama, encountered Haley and Collins at the E&Z Event Center, both armed with guns bought by Brown. Even more disturbing, one of the handguns Walker purchased in Alabama on November 18, 2019, was later used in a homicide in Boston on April 15, 2020—a death now tied to this trafficking ring.

Haley and Collins are charged with conspiracy to falsify information on firearm acquisition records, a felony carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Their arraignment took place before U.S. Magistrate Judge Staci G. Cornelius, where they entered not guilty pleas. Prosecutors stress that an indictment is not a conviction—each defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. But court documents paint a damning picture of coordination, cash payments, and deliberate deception across hundreds of miles.

The investigation is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the DOJ’s flagship initiative to dismantle violent crime networks. U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and ATF Special Agent in Charge Mickey French emphasized that trafficking guns through straw purchases endangers communities on both ends of the supply chain. As the case moves toward trial, federal prosecutors are building a narrative of greed, guns, and consequences that stretch from the pawn shops of Tuscaloosa to the streets of Boston.

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