James Osborne III, Gun Trafficking, Indiana 2021

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – A pair of Indianapolis residents are behind bars after being sentenced for a brazen scheme to funnel dozens of firearms from Indiana to the streets of Chicago. Miesha Webster, 27, and James Osborne III, 34, were sentenced Wednesday, May 8, 2024, after pleading guilty to federal charges related to the illegal gun pipeline.

Osborne received the stiffer sentence: 45 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Webster was handed 18 months imprisonment and will also face two years of supervised release. The duo conspired to illegally purchase at least 37 firearms between June 2021 and September 17, 2021, a practice known as “straw purchasing.” This involves legally buying guns for someone prohibited from owning them, then transporting those weapons across state lines.

Court documents reveal Osborne drove Webster to various firearms dealers in Indiana. Webster, posing as the actual buyer, purchased the guns using funds provided by Osborne. Osborne, himself prohibited from owning firearms, directed Webster on which weapons to acquire. The pair then sold these straw-purchased firearms to a buyer from Chicago, Illinois, conducting the transactions in Indiana before the buyer transported them north.

The scheme came crashing down on September 13, 2021, when ATF agents observed Webster leaving a Brownsburg, Indiana gun store with a Glock 21 .40 caliber pistol and a Glock 26 9mm pistol. She’d falsely listed a home address on the ATF form. Agents followed the pair to Lafayette, Indiana, where they were caught in the act of selling the firearms to their Chicago contact. Both Webster and Osborne were immediately arrested.

The investigation revealed Webster purchased a staggering 51 firearms in total. Law enforcement has recovered 24 of those guns, including six seized during the arrest. Disturbingly, 17 of the recovered firearms turned up in Chicago or surrounding Illinois cities, directly linking the pair’s actions to potential violence in the region. U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Myers for the Southern District of Indiana minced no words: “Illegal gun sales fuel violence… by putting deadly weapons in the hands of people with no lawful business having them.”

“These defendants were both charged with violating the Gun Control Act by straw purchasing and trafficking firearms,” stated Daryl S. McCormick, Special Agent in Charge of ATF’s Columbus Field Division. “In facilitating the flow of firearms to those who are prohibited from possessing them, they bear a measure of responsibility for the violence those firearms cause in our community.” The sentences serve as a warning: those who profit from illegal gun trafficking will face serious federal consequences.

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