A janitor at an apartment building in Midtown Manhattan and three other people have been charged with arms smuggling brought to New York from the state of Tennessee, authorities announced Tuesday.
The main suspect is Roberto Carmona, 51, who according to the indictment sold the weapons he obtained from his contacts in the south of the country and transported them for illegal sale in New York.
“Roberto Carmona allegedly used his job as a janitor to operate a highly illegal, one-man gun show outside the Midtown building where he worked – storing ammunition in his locker and selling multiple deadly weapons outside,” said the District Attorney of Manhattan, Cyrus R. Vance.
“Mr. Carmona is also charged with bringing his work home, selling dozens of guns outside of the Morningside Heights building where he lived,” the prosecutor added.
According to the accusation, Carmona would have sold 80 firearms from January to September of this year.
Among the weapons are 63 semi-automatic pistols, 11 revolvers, two assault rifles and others.
The prices of each weapon range from $ 500 to $ 3,700, always according to the indictment.
The way the arms traffickers operated – according to the indictment – was that the other three defendants acquired them in Tennessee and then transported them to Virginia or New Yersey where Carmona and Harold Floran – one of the accused – brought them to New York.
“With too many illegal weapons already on the market, it is a great service that our NYPD investigators and prosecutors have accomplished in this case to ensure that these trafficked weapons were removed before they hit the streets of our city,” he said. NYC Police Commissioner Darmot Shea.
80 guns off our streets & a 141-count indictment — the culmination of a joint investigation w/ our partners into illegal gun sales & trafficking into NYC.
While many see firearms on this table, we see the people who will never be victimized by them.
➡️ https://t.co/t4FmRvhQa3 pic.twitter.com/Lp8tC4FOLj
— Commissioner Shea (@NYPDShea) October 5, 2021
The defendants are indicted in a 141-count New York State Supreme Court indictment of conspiracy in the fourth degree, as well as several counts of first, second and third degree criminal sale of a firearm, and other related charges.
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