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Eight Defendants Charged in Firearms Trafficking Ring
A ten-count indictment was unsealed today in United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York charging eight defendants with conspiring to make false statements in the acquisition of firearms and/or with related firearm acquisitions or trafficking offenses.
Among the defendants is Curtis Clark, a previously convicted felon who was also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Clark was previously arraigned before Magistrate Judge Viktor V. Pohorelsky in Brooklyn on June 15, 2016.
Four of the remaining defendants were arrested earlier today in South Carolina, and their initial appearances are scheduled this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Kaymani D. West at the federal courthouse in Florence, South Carolina. The government will seek to remove to New York for prosecution the defendants arrested out of state.
The charges were announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Delano A. Reid, Special Agent-in-Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and William J. Bratton, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD).
“This office is committed to preventing the flow of illegal firearms up the Interstate 95 corridor, also referred to as the ‘Iron Pipeline,’ into New York,” stated United States Attorney Capers. “Today’s arrests are another example of our resolve to prosecute those who illegally traffic firearms, as well as the straw buyers who enable the traffickers to engage in this potentially deadly and illegal business.”
As alleged in the indictment and complaint, Curtis Clark thought that he could supply firearms along the Iron Pipeline to the streets of New York City. His co-conspirators acted as straw purchasers, buying firearms on Clark’s behalf from dealers in South Carolina and falsifying the required Federal forms in order to make it appear that they were the actual purchasers.
Curtis Clark, Jonathan Grant, Shamika Cross, Alexis Gilbert, Ganika McCollum, Alexis Morris, Ashley Sowells, and Angel Wheeler agreed to purchase firearms for him at firearms stores in South Carolina, falsely claiming that they were purchasing the guns for themselves. Clark and others then illegally transported the guns to New York for sale in Brooklyn.
Key Facts
- State: New York
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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