Joao Victor Da Silva Soares, Firearms Trafficking, Massachusetts 2024

⏱ 2 min read

Joao Victor Da Silva Soares, a 22-year-old from Everett, Massachusetts, was involved in a brazen firearms trafficking scheme that spanned Eastern Massachusetts. Between August and September 2024, Soares supplied over half a dozen firearms, including AR-15 style rifles, to buyers in the region. The illicit deals went down in parking lots and outside residences in Malden and Milford, with Soares raking in thousands of dollars in the process.

One of the sales, which took place on August 26, 2024, in a Malden parking lot, netted Soares $6,000 for two AR-15 style rifles. Another sale, on September 11, 2024, outside a Milford residence, involved five firearms, including rifles, pistols, and a shotgun. Soares’ luck ran out when he was arrested in September 2024 in a related state case, and subsequently charged in federal court in January 2025.

Soares pleaded guilty to one count of dealing firearms without a license and one count of conspiracy to engage in the business of dealing in firearms without a license in December 2025. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release, by U.S. District Court Judge Myong J. Joun.

The investigation was a collaborative effort between federal and state agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, the Massachusetts State Police, and the Malden and Milford Police Departments.

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