Post date: Aug 19, 2013 8:23:26 PM
Authorities in New York City announce the largest gun seizure in city history at a news conference. More than 250 guns were sold in an undercover New York Police Department investigation. Nineteen members of two loosely-organized gun trafficking groups were indicted and arrested.
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 19, 2013) (NBC) - Authorities in New York City announced the largest gun seizure in city history at a news conference on Monday (August 19). New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Special Narcotics ProsecutorBridget Brennan made the announcement at police headquarters in downtown Manhattan.
Commissioner Kelly said, "All told, 254 illegal guns were recovered in this investigation. As the Mayor said, this is the biggest firearms takedown in the department's history. Detectives discovered that Walker easily obtained guns from individuals in North Carolina who knew of the brisk business he could do inBrooklyn."Walter Walker, a resident of Sanforrd, North Carolina, was one of 19 members of two, loosely-organized gun trafficking groups who were indicted or arrested. The groups illegally funneled firearms from North and South Carolina into New YorkCity, where black market guns fetch at least three times their original price.
The New York City Police Department's Firearms Investigation Unit conducted the undercover investigation.
Bloomberg said, "Our administration has pursued a concerted and coordinated effort to crack down on illegal firearms. Efforts that combined tough legislation, innovative litigation and smart, proactive policing that make it much more likely that if you break our city's gun laws, you'll be caught."
The 19 defendants face numerous counts of conspiracy, criminal sale of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon and other crimes. In addition to Walker, Earl Campbell, a resident of Rock Hill, South Carolina, was charged.
Walker and Campbell took numerous trips between September 2012 and July 2013 to transport guns between their home states and New York City, even though they operated independently of one another. They did share a common Brooklyn-based broker, Omole Adedji, who negotiated sales to prospective firearms purchasers in New York City.
A long-term wiretap investigation by the New York Police Department utilized an undercover NYPD detective who met with the defendants on more than 45 occasions to buy guns. Sales charged in the indictment totaled $157,625 USD, with the majority of the transactions involving multiple weapons.
Both Walker and Campbell took as many as 14 illegal firearms at a time in their luggage on trips north. Their preferred mode of travel was bus lines operating in the vicinity of Manhattan's Chinatown. Sales generally took place within hours of Walker or Campbell arriving in New York with a load of guns.
Bridget Brennan, New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor, said of those charged, "They had no concept of the violence or the mayhem that they were causing. It was all about money. It was all about the fact that they could buy guns in a state where restrictions were loose and resell them on the black market in a state at a very high price and at a premium because we have such tough gun restrictions here in New York state."
Bloomberg has spent millions of his personal fortune combating illegal guns through Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition he founded that includes more than 1,000 mayors in the United States.