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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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June 29, 2012
Vol. 12, No. 180
Criminals use loophole to get guns
Chicago Tribune - 'Straw' buyers enlisted to dodge the Brady Act, authorities say By Mike Dorning, Washington Bureau. Tribune staff reporter Eric Ferkenhoff contributed to this report
The man who is accused of shooting Chicago police detective Joseph M. Airhart Jr. capitalized on a simple but increasingly common way to evade gun control laws: He had someone else buy the guns for him.
The quick path that two powerful handguns allegedly made from the counter of a pawn shop in Benton Harbor, Mich., to the hands of Daniel Salley illustrates a critical gap in the nation's approach to controlling guns.
Although Salley was barred from buying a gun because of a domestic violence conviction, he went twice to the same pawn shop to pick out a gun that a female companion then purchased for him, according to a statement the woman gave authorities. A least once, Salley had holstered the gun even before the couple reached their car, according to police.
And so, on Aug. 28, Salley stood in a Chicago Loop apartment with the same two guns, one in each hand, blasting away at a team of Chicago police and FBI agents who had come to arrest him on an armed robbery charge, police say. Airhart, who was shot in the head, still was struggling for his life Saturday in a hospital.
The woman who bought the guns for Salley has not been charged, authorities said.
The so-called straw purchase of guns is "the most significant factor in gun trafficking, without any question," said Jack Killorin, director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' Atlanta field division.
Sometimes, the real buyers walk into the gun store to help with the purchase. Other times, they may wait outside the door. A friend or accomplice with no criminal record easily can pass the federal Brady Act's required background check, then turn over the gun.
"That, in many ways, is the reality of ... getting a gun in Chicago," said David Hoffman, a local federal prosecutor.
Guns obtained through such straw purchases account for nearly a third of the firearms involved in federal gun trafficking investigations, according to an ATF analysis covering cases handled from 1996 through 1998.
Gun-show debate blurs issue
The passionate and long-running political debate over regulating gun shows has largely obscured the problem of straw purchases. But in many places, including Chicago, criminals are more likely to obtain their weapons in that way than from a gun show, said local and federal firearms agents.
Criminals and gun traffickers long have used straw purchases as a way of disguising their identity in case a gun is recovered by police and attempts are made to trace it. But the practice appears to have grown since the Brady Act cut off convicted criminals' direct access to gun stores, ATF officials and firearms agents said.
Straw purchases are difficult to control. Although in recent years firearms agents have heightened their focus on the problem and developed more sophisticated investigative techniques, it remains difficult to catch people involved in the activity, unless the gun is recovered in a high-profile crime.
Gun control advocates argue the problem underscores the need for more comprehensive laws, including regulation of all secondhand gun sales. Such a system would establish a paper trail, making it easier to catch buyers who act as fronts for others, they say.
Gun rights groups such as the National Rifle Association say that the practice could best be curtailed with more aggressive enforcement of existing laws.
Top penalty rarely given
Although the maximum federal penalty for participating in a straw purchase is a 10-year prison term, in practice sentencing guidelines call for only 2 to 2 1/2 years' imprisonment for someone caught providing as many as a dozen guns to a convicted felon. That's half the mandatory (5-year) minimum for possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine.
Straw purchases--the term derives from the expression "straw man," a person whose identity is used as a disguise--have been a factor in some of the most prominent local and national shooting tragedies.
The .357-caliber revolver used to kill Chicago Police Officer Michael Ceriale was bought by a South Side man who paid a cocaine debt to the Gangster Disciples by serving as a front for some of their gun purchases.
Two shotguns and a rifle used in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre were purchased by Dylan Klebold's 18-year-old girlfriend. Still 17, Klebold wasn't old enough to buy the weapons, but under state law it was legal for his girlfriend to not only buy the guns but also to give them to a minor.
In the Chicago area, someone with a clean record typically earns $50 to $100 per gun as a straw purchaser, according to local ATF agents and members of the Chicago Police Department's anti-gun enforcement unit.
Hard to convict `fronts'
Because of the nation's hodgepodge of state and federal gun laws, it's difficult to catch and convict people who act as fronts to buy weapons for felons. In essence, the authorities must prove the straw purchaser knew he or she was buying a gun for someone who couldn't pass the background check and deliberately flouted the laws.
The Brady Act requires only licensed gun dealers to do buyer background checks and keep sales records on firearms.
But there are no federal checks on weapons that change hands at a gun show, a meeting on the street, via newspaper ad or the Internet. In most states, the original owner need not even keep a record when selling a gun secondhand or otherwise disposing of a firearm, although Illinois is an exception.[/b
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"You're looking at the path of least resistance," said Terry Austin, chief of the ATF's National Firearms Tracing Center. "If you've got someone who has a gun store down the street from him and he knows he can pay some mutt $50 to go get him a gun, he'll do it. He's not going to drive two hours on a Saturday to go to a gun show."
In Chicago, where handgun sales are banned, straw buyers usually make their purchases at gun shops in suburban Cook County, although more of them now appear to be traveling to Downstate Illinois and neighboring states, said Chicago police and federal firearms agents.
[b]Often, gang members will drive their accomplices to a gun store to make weapons purchases, police said. They also frequently help a potential straw buyer fill out an application for an Illinois Firearm Owner's Identification Card, which is required to buy guns in the state.
Typically, authorities only identify straw buyers if repeated transactions show patterns, such as frequent purchases of inexpensive, easy-to-conceal semi-automatic pistols popular with criminals. Likewise, firearms agents may begin an investigation if guns originally bought by the same person start turning up too often in crimes.
Also, gun store managers may alert authorities when a clerk realizes a straw purchase is about to take place and delay the sale until firearms agents can set up surveillance. Several ATF agents said that such operations account for a large portion of the agency's successful prosecutions. Charges otherwise can be difficult to prove in court.
A `tough law to charge'
There is no federal law against buying a gun from a dealer one day and then selling it secondhand the next. It is only illegal when the nominal buyer never intends to own the gun and acts purely as a front. The federal form that gun purchasers must complete requires them to certify that they are the "actual buyer" of the weapon.
"It's a really tough law to charge," said one veteran ATF agent and field supervisor, who asked not to be identified. "Basically, you have to catch somebody in the act. You see them in the gun store, see them buy the gun and then go out to the car and give it to someone else."
"Basically, short of a confession, you won't be able to prove that case," said Mike Smith, supervisor of the gang prosecution unit in the Cook County state's attorney's office.
Police in Illinois have an advantage because they usually can arrest a suspect for violating the state record-keeping statute, which also requires that gun owners only sell their weapons to holders of an Illinois Firearm Owner's Identification Card. That also allows police more leverage in conducting an interrogation, officers said.
"Here, at least you've got them in your cuffs, you've got them in your house. They're going to jail. That gets you in the door right then and there. You're not out on the street talking to them for two hours. If we were in Kentucky or Mississippi, I don't know what we'd do," said an officer in the Chicago Police Department's gun unit who asked not to be identified.
Still, more often than not, Chicago police cannot make a charge of straw purchasing stick, under either federal law or a similar state law. One officer closely involved in gun cases estimated that such a charge is filed in only about one-tenth of suspected cases. Mostly, offenders are prosecuted on misdemeanor charges of violating the record-keeping statute, officers and prosecutors said.
Curtailing straw purchases
As a way of curtailing straw purchases, some gun-control advocates argue for a federal law that would limit firearm purchases to one handgun per month. Each buyer's ability to supply guns then would be reduced. After Virginia passed such a law in 1993, the number of crime guns traced back to sales originally made in the state dropped dramatically.
But the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups oppose the step as an inconvenience to legitimate firearms purchasers and a restriction of their rights.
Some others suggest tougher penalties.
"This is going to be a crime that, for a certain number of people, deterrence will work. But the kind of sentences you get for a classic straw purchase don't have that big an effect," said Hoffman, the federal prosecutor.
Hoffman said the relatively small sentences also influence federal agents' willingness to devote limited resources to pursue cases. In particular, he said, it may guide decisions when faced with making a choice on whether to use an informant to pursue gun investigations versus drug-dealing cases.
"Sometimes, you'll hear it's not worth it. We can use an informant for a drug case, and the sentence will be several times higher," Hoffman said.
Copyright (c) 2001, Chicago Tribune
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Fri Jun 29, 2012 4:46 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Man accused of stealing AK-47 tells police he sold gun to Flint drug dealer
Published: Friday, July 13, 2012, 9:00 PM Updated: Friday, July 13, 2012, 9:09 PM
By Khalil AlHajal | kalhajal@mlive.com
FLINT, MI – A Dryden man was arraigned in Oakland County court today after being accused of stealing an AK-47 assault rifle from an Orion Township home and selling it to a drug dealer in Flint.
View full size(Oakland County Sheriff)Edmund Joseph Proulx, 29, of Dryden
Edmund Proulx, 29, was charged with first-degree home invasion and larceny of a firearm, according to the Oakland County Sheriff's office.
The victim reported the theft on July 7, telling police the firearm was stolen from his Orion Township home and that he suspected a tenant who had been living in his basement was involved.
Police conducted surveillance on the suspect in Lapeer County and arrested Proulx on Thursday, according to the Sheriff's office.
Proulx, according to police, admitted to the home invasion and said he sold the gun to a Flint drug dealer
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Officials said the investigation would continue with the help of Flint police to try to recover the weapon.
He was arraigned Friday before Judge Nancy Carniak, who set bond at $75,000. Proulx was lodged at the Oakland County Jail, according to the Sheriff's office.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 248-858-4950 or CRIME STOPPERS at 800-222-TIPS. |
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Sat Jul 14, 2012 6:25 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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19 seized in illegal gun flow to gangs
Officers team up to target pipeline from Mississippi
March 01, 2007|By Jeff Coen, Tribune staff reporter.
The arrests of 19 people in Chicago and Mississippi in a gun-trafficking conspiracy offer a snapshot into the illegal gun trade in which gang members here end up with high-powered weapons, federal authorities said Wednesday.
A loose organization made up of relatives, their friends and associates allegedly arranged for the purchase of more than 100 guns in Mississippi, where laws are relatively lax, and transport here for sale to gangs such as the Gangster Disciples.
About three dozen weapons eventually were recovered at Chicago crime scenes, including a shootout last year in which two people were killed and a police officer wounded, investigators said.
"When you add illegally obtained heavy-caliber firearms to the already volatile mix of gangs and drugs on the streets of Chicago, the result to say the least is an unacceptable level of violence," said Gary Shapiro, first assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago.
Three people were in custody in Chicago and 15 in Mississippi after a team of agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and officers from the Chicago Police Department and Illinois State Police cracked down on the group early Wednesday. One suspect was already in custody.
Shapiro said gun-running operations like the one dismantled Wednesday contribute significantly to crime in the city.
It "threatens not only those who try to enforce our laws, but also the law-abiding citizens who only wish to live their lives in the neighborhoods that the gangs are trying to dominate," Shapiro said.
Recovered guns included two assault rifles and several high-powered handguns, he said.
Authorities said gun brokers in Chicago worked with traffickers, who recruited buyers in Mississippi. Those buyers made what are known as "straw purchases" at a group of three pawn shops and a gun store in Clarksdale and Tunica, Miss., falsely claiming that the guns were for them.
An ATF affidavit filed in the case outlines when weapons were purchased by alleged conspirators and when those guns turned up in Chicago.
On July 30, 2005, one of the buyers, Percy Strong, 54, of Jonestown, Miss., bought a 9mm handgun at Krosstown Trade and Pawn in Clarksdale, according to the affidavit Last October, Chicago police trying to thwart a gang hit in Humboldt Park pulled over a car full of New Breeds gang members who were on their way to shoot a rival.
The gang members pulled out an assault weapon and the pistol Strong had bought at Krosstown, authorities said. A shootout ensued that left two of the gang members dead and a police officer shot in the hand.
In December 2003, Strong bought another 9mm pistol from Krosstown. That weapon was recovered by Chicago police in the South Side bedroom of a convicted felon, along with a stash of drugs, according to the affidavit.
On Sept. 1, 2003, Strong bought a .45-caliber pistol at the same business, the affidavit states. Less than two months later, the gun was recovered after a Gangster Disciple street gang member used it to shoot someone in the 5700 block of South Wabash Avenue.
Another buyer, James Jiles of Clarksdale, bought a semiautomatic rifle at Mega Pawn in that town. Police executing a search warrant on the South Side in 2004 found the weapon in the possession of a member of the Mafia Insane Vice Lords, the affidavit states.
ATF leaders said they began to crack the network by analyzing gun data, discovering that between 2001 and last fall, 300 guns recovered by law enforcement in Northern Illinois came from the Clarksdale and Tunica shops. Records from those businesses were then used to identify the purchasers, who were questioned by investigators and who blamed others in the network.
Strong told the ATF he was recruited by Eddie Nesby, 25, of Chicago, who was among those charged. Nesby paid him $250 cash in addition to the cost of the gun, authorities said, but other buyers were paid as little as $20 or $50.
Many involved in the scheme knew where the guns were headed, investigators said, and attempted to destroy the serial numbers on many of the weapons. Most of the guns remain on the street and unaccounted for.
Other Chicagoans arrested and charged in the conspiracy in addition to Nesby were Julius Statham, 37, who allegedly bought some of the weapons in Chicago; and Antonio Brunt, 30, who along with Statham was accused of using a relative to obtain firearms in the South.
Attorneys for the men could not immediately be reached for comment.
Andrew Traver, special agent in charge of the Chicago ATF, said the case is a good example of how firearms-trafficking works. Traver called it a growing problem that involves more-sophisticated groups moving deadlier firearms.
"Back in the late '80s and early '90s, it was generally one person with a trunkful of guns who would drive up and sell them," he said. "Now we have these groups of people, where they recruit family members or associates in states that tend to have more lenient gun laws than Illinois
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Mississippi does not require a special firearm owner's identification card to buy a gun, authorities said, and has no waiting period.
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jcoen@tribune. |
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Sat Jul 14, 2012 6:38 am |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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| Need any tips on making illegal straw purchases just ask the current attorney general Eric Withholder and his boss Barry Obama. Not only will they tell you how but they will look the other way even when the seller complains its illegal. |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Sat Jul 14, 2012 6:46 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Cops arrest 19 from Harlem's gun-smuggling ‘Goodfellas’ gang
BY MATT DELUCA, EMILY SHER AND CHRISTINA BOYLE
Saturday, November 05, 2011
Nineteen members of a violent Harlem street gang who called themselves “The Goodfellas” were busted for smuggling guns and stashing them in gutters, mailboxes and under stoops.
A massive undercover operation netted the suspects, some of whom used colorful nicknames like “Mr. Untouchable” or “Too Wild Willie.”
The investigation by the NYPD, FBI and Manhattan district attorney’s office also yielded a cache of weapons, including a Tec-9, a semiautomatic Chinese SKS military rifle and dozens of other guns.
The suspects, as young as 17, were charged with weapons possession, conspiracy, endangering the welfare of a child and firearms trafficking. Some were hit with attempted murder.
“We have dismantled one of the most violent gangs in Central Harlem,” Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. said Friday.
Prosecutors said the gang, which also went by “The New Dons,” wasn’t involved in drugdealing. They secured weapons simply to protect their turf around 129th St. between Lenox and Fifth Aves. They stashed their guns inside public places, including a home where a 5-year-old boy lived, officials said.
“We have made great strides but our work with fighting gang violence doesn’t end with prosecution,” Vance said. “We have to give young people alternatives.”
The gang got its weapons from Virginia, which has long been one of the main sources of guns flowing into New York City.
Mayor Bloomberg recently donated $25,000 apiece to six Democratic Virginia state Senate candidates who support strict gun control.
On one occasion, 22-year-old Darnell Wynt, also known as “Bula Bless,” bought 15 illegal guns in Virginia, including the Chinese SKS rifle and the Tec-9. Wynt was nabbed by deputy sheriffs as he attempted to haul them back to Manhattan, prosecutors said.
Undercover officers monitored the gang’s movements from 2007 |
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Sat Jul 14, 2012 6:53 am |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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| If obama had a son he would probably look like these guys. |
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"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Sat Jul 14, 2012 10:59 am |
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Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
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| Put any law in place you want, and criminals will circumvent it. If the sale and possession of any firearm was totally banned, it would still be possible to buy a gun on the street. All it would do is raise the price.A 38 revolver would probably cost 500 bucks instead of the current street price of 80 bucks. |
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I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Sat Jul 14, 2012 12:34 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| Any gun dealer should be concerned when one person buys up to 40 assault weapons for his own use. (And this has happenes) The problem lies in the resale of the gun or the legitimate buyer transferring the gun to one who legally cannot own. |
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Sat Jul 14, 2012 3:35 pm |
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