Darick Nollett, Straw Purchases of Firearms, New Jersey 2020

A Cumberland County man has been sentenced to 24 months in prison for participating in straw purchases to obtain firearms that he was not permitted to purchase, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Darick Nollett, 32, of Heislerville, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp to an information charging him with one count of aiding and abetting the making of a false statement during the purchase of a firearm. Judge Shipp imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

Nollett was not legally permitted to purchase firearms because of a 2015 felony conviction. In 2018 and 2019, in order to obtain firearms, Nollett caused other individuals to purchase five firearms for him. These individuals falsely stated on U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) Firearm Transaction that they were the actual buyer/transferee of the firearm when, in fact, Nollett was the actual buyer/transferee.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Shipp sentenced Nollett to three years of supervised release and ordered Nollett to forfeit or abandon the firearms, ammunition, and firearm accessories recovered from his property.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jason J. Molina in Newark; special agents of the ATF Newark Field Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey L. Matthews; postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Philadelphia Division, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Damon E. Wood; officers of the New Jersey State Police, under the direction of Superintendent Col. Patrick J. Callahan; the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Friedman of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Camden.

Nollett was not legally permitted to purchase the firearms because of a 2015 felony conviction. Nollett caused other individuals to purchase five firearms for him in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, Nollett ordered “fuel filters” from China that he intended to modify and use as firearms silencers. Law enforcement officers executing a court-authorized search warrant of Nollett’s property in May 2020 recovered more than 30 firearms, as well as ammunition and firearm accessories.

The defendant’s prior conviction was entered in 2015. In 2018 and 2019, he caused other individuals to purchase five firearms for him. These individuals falsely stated on ATF Firearm Transaction that they were the actual buyer/transferee of the firearm.

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