What you should know
- Four people were arrested in connection with a multi-state gun raid, New York City authorities announced Tuesday.
- The four people arrested have been charged with “their role in a conspiracy to sell 80 illegal and deadly firearms over the course of 15 transactions to undercover New York City Police officers,” the Manhattan district attorney said. , Cy Vance.
- The individuals have been charged with 141 criminal charges, including conspiracy, criminal sale of firearms, and criminal possession of weapons.
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NEW YORK – Four people have been arrested in connection with a multi-state gun raid, New York City authorities announced Tuesday.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance revealed the major gun shootdown during a news conference in which they also displayed the arsenal of guns seized in this case.
The four people arrested have been charged with “their role in a conspiracy to sell 80 illegal and deadly firearms over the course of 15 transactions to undercover New York City Police officers,” Vance said. The alleged arms sales took place between January 29 and September 9.
The individuals have been charged with 141 criminal charges, including conspiracy, criminal sale of firearms, and criminal possession of weapons.
“The primary charge for these individuals is the criminal sale of a firearm in the first degree … which carries a potential maximum sentence of 25 years in prison,” Vance said.
Roberto Carmona, one of the defendants, allegedly used his janitor position at an office building in Midtown Manhattan by storing ammunition in his work locker and selling multiple guns in front of the building on West 55th Street, according to Vance. Carmona, 51, is also charged with selling guns outside of his Morningside Heights residence. Prices ranged from $ 500 to $ 3,700 per firearm.
In addition, three Tennessee men are charged with providing the weapons to the Midtown janitor. The defendants allegedly orchestrated the sale of weapons through text messages and phone calls and exchanged cash and digital payments.
Typically, according to prosecutors, Alan Goode, 30, and Melvyn McDonald, 41, bought the guns in Tennessee and sold them to Harold Floran, 51, who would later meet with Carmona in Virginia, Tennessee or New Jersey to exchange weapons.
Information from the defendants’ attorney was not immediately known.
Community leaders are outraged after the increase in violence in the Bronx. Ricardo Villarini reports.
The charges come as the city finds itself in the midst of a wave of gun violence that has gripped the streets in recent months, including shootings this past weekend involving teenagers. One of them, a 16-year-old girl who was in a Brooklyn playground with friends, remains in critical condition in a hospital after being shot in the head.
Police say she was not the intended target.
“New York City police officers risk their lives every day to prevent guns from falling into the hands of criminals because every shooting is a serious concern to the public and police,” Shea said. “With too many illegal weapons already out there, it is a great service that our NYPD investigators and prosecutors have rendered in this case to make sure these trafficked weapons are out of service before they hit the streets of our city.”
“Not even a global pandemic is stopping the flow of weapons from the southern states to New York City,” Vance said, adding that laws, if not at the federal level, then at the more local level, must change to combat the arms trafficking.
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