By Michael Belsamo, AP
Twelve people, including three U.S. Army soldiers, are accused in a large-scale gun trafficking ring that prosecutors allege supplied nearly 100 guns to gang members in Chicago and led to at least two killings, the Justice Department said Friday.
The soldiers — Demarcus Adams, 21; Jarius Brunson, 22; and Brandon Miller, 22 — were enlisted in the Army and stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, where they would legally purchase guns from local dealers in Tennessee and Kentucky, prosecutors charged. The soldiers are accused of selling them to members of the Gangster Disciples street gang in the Pocket Town neighborhood on Chicago’s south side, according to the 21-count indictment.
The indictment charges the group with conspiring to violate federal firearms laws, among other crimes. If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison.
The case is part of the Justice Department’s push to investigate and prosecute gun trafficking amid rising crime across the U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has vowed to prioritize prosecutions of firearms traffickers and so-called “straw purchasers,” who legally purchase firearms to sell them to people who can’t legally possess guns, often in states with more restrictive gun laws.
“The Justice Department will spare no resources to hold accountable criminal gun traffickers,” Garland said at a news conference Friday. “There is no hiding place for those who flood our communities with illegal guns. It does not matter where you are, or how far away you are. If you illegally traffic guns, we and our law enforcement partners nationwide will find you.”
Prosecutors allege Miller would receive orders from members of the Gangster Disciples in Chicago for specific guns to purchase and he, Brunson, and Adams would then buy them from dealers in Clarksville, Tennessee and Oak Grove, Kentucky, and give them to gang members, who paid through money transfer apps, including Zelle and CashApp. Miller also advertised that he had 1,000 rounds of ammunition available for sale, prosecutors say.
Authorities believe the trio provided over 90 illegally obtained firearms to the gang “to facilitate the on-going violent disputes between the Pocket Town Gangster Disciples and their rival gangs,” the Justice Department said.
Investigators believe one of the guns was used in a shooting at a party in Chicago last March that left one man dead, and seven others wounded. Another was used in a killing at a Chicago barbershop in January 2021, according to officials.
The nine others charged in the indictment are: Blaise Smith, 29; Rahaeem Johnson, 24; Bryant Larkin, 33; Corey Curtis, 26; Elijah Tillman, 24; Lazarus Greenwood, 23; Dwight Lowry, 41; and Dreshion Parks, 25, all of Chicago; along with Terrell Mitchell, 27, of Davenport, Iowa. Two people who were alleged to be part of the conspiracy were killed “as a result of gang violence, which was facilitated by the firearms illegally transferred to individuals in the Chicago,” prosecutors say.
The indictment spells out how Miller would exchange messages with his associates in Chicago to negotiate the prices of the guns.
“The silver one a 380 u still want it it’s a steal,” Miller wrote to Lowry in December 2020, the indictment says. Lowry wrote back, “Yup can’t beat it,” according to court papers.
The soldiers should get reduction in rank to PFC with loss of all benefits, a BCD and time in Leavenworth
If they are convicted they’ll get a dishonorable discharge and likely some years at a federal pen.
Too bad they cannot brand them like “Inglorious Bastards”.
At least two of them are black. That might be seen as rayciss.
I wouldn’t count on the dishonorable. Even years ago, when I was in, it was extremely difficult, bordering on impossible, to get a DD. BCD was the max. And then, after serving time, you could apply to have that reduced to a general discharge.
It takes something truly heinous to get a dishonorable.
There’s always the Bad Conduct Discharge option.
so please explain to the rest of us iggerunt plebes what is NOT “truly heinous” abouit deliberately and wilfully trafficking guns into a big city gang situation, ome of which guns led directly and causally to innoc=cent deaths? These guys COULD be properly charged with murder, as their federal level felony crimes were key to murders. no gun, no murder. They supplied guns, innocents died.
A “buy one get two more free” Big Chicken Dinner? And some time breaking big rocks into little rocks? I’m all for it.
I read “Pocket Town Gangster Disciples” as ‘Pocket Town Dumpsters’….which is a better title for a gang
So much for the “oath of enlistment”, eh?? A scumbag is a scumbag, uniform or not!
I wonder if the three were in uniform when the purchases were made? If so each may be receive a dishonorable discharge, etc. Selling, giving a firearm to the wrong person most likely will sooner or later boomerang on the seller. And it did so lock the disgusting fools up.
It does not matter if they were in uniform or not.Once you are active duty and break the law you will face the consequences of your actions.
Wait a minute. According to this article members the United States military secretly sold guns to criminal cartels specifically so they could kill each other, while enriching the sellers.
Hasn’t this been the status quo for at least 70 years?
These gunms were privately bought, had the dotgov been in on it they would have been given away on a promise.
To what sell the cocaine the CIA was moving?
Well the Clinton foundation still needs it’s funding.
Remember, the Gub’ment hates competition.
Were Holder and Obama named in the indictments? They have a documented history of supplying criminal organizations with thousands of fraudulently obtained firearms.
They ran too fast and their lawyers mounted a defense too furious.
Ba Dump Tsssh!!!
Hmmm…..resurrecting visions of OBlunder and Holder…..aka Fast and Furious… Should share the grief for all who traffic guns.
For anything outside the US relevant to us my Spanish isn’t that good and for inside the borders I don’t have the gang affiliations that covers around 80% of actual criminal transfers. The rest is mostly girlfriends buying for their prohibited person boyfriends who are not gang related based on the last time I had any meaningful access to data.
That’s funny, I didn’t hear a peep about this on the MSNBS, or CNN, or even Fox for that matter.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicago-crime-army-soldiers-gun-running-scheme
There was a brief period if time early in the gwot that gang members enlisting was considered an issue worth investigating. In time that concern got diluted to only highlighting those ebile white supremacists groups, kinda like Azov, and finally to becoming a complete non-issue.
Perhaps the first acknowledgement would have been worth following up on.
Ft Hood (ironic coincidence) has a lot of relevant history over the last two decades on those exact issues.
I’ve been told that Ft Hood is “The Ghetto” of army bases.
By an officer who was stationed there for 2 years.
Ft Lewis & Ft Meade are the penthouses, by comparison.
Isn’t this a situation where we should be glad that there are federal and state jurisdictions where the soldiers can be tried?
Simply more proof that Universal Background Checks are needed. At the Least the Brady Bill did work by being a quasi form of registration as the guns were traced right back to the original owners proving they were engaged in trafficking. Obviously the sellers were Morons of the 1st degree in believing they would not be caught reselling large quantities of guns they signed for. If they had only sold a couple guns they probably could have probably feigned innocents, once again proving why Universal Background Checks are needed. In other words to spell it out simply the sellers only sold their legal guns because they did not have to go through a dealer to resell them but would have if Universal Background Checks were law.
Could anyone make sense of that drivel? Never mind. I’m not that interested. There’s a commercial break and there’s fresh sushi in the fridge.
dontchya know? See daclan scroll down
Simple and quick and painless.
Hey dummy: there were background checks done on all of these firearms. The big secret all of you dummies can’t understand is – CRIMINALS are going to do whatever the hell they want to do!
What, you seriously think criminals are going to go through a licensed dealer to transfer their criminal assets? DUHHHH!
April fool!
He’s a fool every day of the year.
I 2nd that motion.
They had to go through the government’s background checks to buy the guns in the first place. As far as selling to gangs, are you really so stupid as to believe they would obey background check laws…..they would simply declare the guns stolen prior to selling them to them gang.
Get a brain…PLEASE !
dacian the Dunderhead. ROFLMAOBT! Just how will a Universal Background Check stop straw buying? You have got to be kidding! It is already against the law to straw buy to begin with. Do you really think that someone who straw buy a gun will go through a background check? If you believe that, I have Santa and the Tooth Fairy in my basement making elves.
pretty much true…and idiotic to expect criminals to follow the law…
Black market you say, those guys are aware that the gun laws written on stone tablets forbade that right?
Maybe the stone tablets need more words, then they’ll work.
Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never harm me.
“Miller also advertised that he had 1,000 rounds of ammunition available for sale”
A year ago he would have been a legend. Now he’s just another guy.
And if UBC’s were the law of the land they still would have been transferred from the criminal to the criminal without a background check. They are criminals after all, they are not going to do a background check on themselves. The solders were dumb enough to believe their purchases were not going to be tracked in the first place.
“They are criminals after all, they are not going to do a background check on themselves.”
Oh yeah???!!! Oh yeah???!!! Do you know every criminal? Have you observed every firearm transfer between criminals? If criminals didn’t obey laws, there would be rampant violent crime across the US. Look at the big cities. If criminals didn’t obey the law, people would never leave their houses. There would be mass numbers of mass shootings on the streets; like, 300 a year, or so. If you don’t know a bunch of criminals, you cannot legitimately declare that they don’t obey laws.
So, there. QED. Ispo facto. Ipse dixit. Roger doger, over and out.
Laugh Laugh Laugh, your sarcasm really got me…..
“Laugh Laugh Laugh, your sarcasm really got me…..”
Sarcasm? Sarcasm?
Not likely.
I am a vegetarian.
for yoo who am sam:
go eat some dead critters. Theprotein helps your brain to work better. That way you dn’t say as many ridiculous things.
if someone IS a criminal, they will have a record, and not pass the BGC, so no sale. So your “logic” flops pretty badly. The BGC only messes with we who can lawfully purchase the guns already. That;s WY those three rotten soldiers were a key part of the equation. SOMEBODY had to spring them from the safes at the FFL’s store. The Chicago Criminals can’t do that.
Hope they get the soliders for interstate sale of handguns wiothout BGC. That’s a ten year bump for every one sold out of state with no NICS check. That otta keep em quiet for a few years.
Personally I think the itnerstate sale law is bogus anyway. But its now the law, and should be applied in this case. These soadjer boiz KNEW they were seriously breaking the law, both civil and moral.
Well ya can’t lynch ’em anymore🙄
We can’t but like Jussie Smollett they can lynch themselves.
the article DID mentioni that some of those involved in the scheme DID meet an untimely (but well deserved) ticket to Eternity when someone USED one of those straw-bought guns and killed some pf them. Shhotin’s just a quicker way of lynching. Same result.
“Demarcus”, “Darius”…
Gotta love it when the “dindus” make it easy to ID those 13% from the rest of the population…
^ this right here.
glad someone else picked up on those handles, too. As obvious as the snout on a porker.
Those in uniform should be court-martialed, given at least a BCD or preferably a DD, with several years of hard labor in Leavenworth. Or at least several years in the Federal Pen.
The civilians involved should be end up with several years in the Federal Pen.
History has shown no matter how brutal, painful, humiliating, or gruesome the punishment may be, it does not deter many if any from committing a crime. What has been proven to deter crime is the threat of injury or death inflicted at the time of the crime by the intended victim. Ask those in prison today what they feared when committing their crimes. Getting arrested and sent to prison, or getting shot by their victims.
Prison will be a vacation for them, their genetics are programmed that it feels just like home better to sentence them to 20+ years chained together in the steering compartment of the USS Harvey Milk.
Considering that all gun laws are illegal violations of the constitution I am having trouble caring.
Also considering that it really doesn’t bother me if bad guys (gang members, cops, etc) kill each other I am having trouble caring again.
I really want to care
I want to feel something
Let me dig a little deeper
Nah, still nothing
If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury. Therefore what he must be taught to fear is his victim.
Jeff Cooper
the MOST FEARED thing in the life of these dirtbags is the normal everyday ARMED CITIZEN. That prospect keeps they awake at night. Hmmm.. whill my next seletion be the one who is armed, trained, skilled, and makes me dead? That;s why they very much tend to operate in Certified Disarmed Victim Zones, and in areas where the common folk are prohibited from or otherwiase unable to possess weapons for self-protection. Chi-Town being one of the toughtest venues for normal folks to legally possess and carry about upon their persons appropriate defensive tools.
Then, there should be laws on the books that the family cannot sue the intended victim for the death of the perpetrator of the crime, The converse, however, should not be true.
Demarcus, Jarius, Rahaeem, Bryant, Elijah, Lazarus Greenwood, Dreshion, and Terrell? Yup I don’t need to see the booking photos, likely all devout parishioners of “rev”? Jeremiah “I Hate Whitey” Wright’s “Church of Hate”.
#EveryTimeEveryDamnTime
Demarcus and Jarius, huh? I’m willing to bet that Brandon’s last name was either, Washington, Freeman, or Brown.
all this pales in comparison to what you can get if you cruise the bars outside of Ft. Bragg…
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