FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Gun Trafficker Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison for
Smuggling Firearms from Georgia to Brooklyn
Total of 151 Weapons, Including Rifle and Semi-Automatic Pistols, Purchased During Undercover Operation
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson today announced that an 18-year prison sentence was given to an out-of-state firearms trafficker who transported guns from Georgia to Brooklyn up Interstate 95, commonly referred to as the “iron pipeline,” and sold over 150 firearms, including assault weapons, to an undercover officer on multiple occasions. One shipment included 25 guns that were then sold to the officer, which represents the largest single weapons buy in the history of the New York City Police Department.
District Attorney Thompson said, “This harsh prison sentence reflects our determination to bring to justice out-of-state firearms traffickers who use lax gun laws down south to flood our city with guns. We will continue to go after these merchants of death no matter where they live.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Michael Quick, of 703 Daniel Street in LaGrange, Georgia, who also had a residence at 37 Comstock Avenue in Staten Island. He was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun to 18 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision, following his guilty plea on August 6, 2015 to one count of first-degree criminal sale of a firearm and one count of first-degree criminal possession of a weapon. The defendant waived his right to appeal as part of the plea.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, between September 2013 and April 2014, Quick made 13 car trips from Georgia to Canarsie, Brooklyn, up the I-95 corridor, transporting as many as 25 firearms at a time, and sold them to an undercover NYPD officer at the corner of Foster Avenue and East 96th Street.
The 151 weapons he smuggled included an AR-15 assault rifle, MAC-11 subcompact machine pistol, two TEC-9 semiautomatic pistols and a variety of pistols and revolvers, many of which were loaded. Some of the firearms were purchased in stores and others were stolen, the investigation found. Wiretaps revealed that the defendant communicated about purchasing guns that are easily concealed; the logistics of transporting them; price negotiations with Georgia suppliers; and wiring money from New York to Georgia to facilitate the initial gun purchases.
District Attorney Thompson said the conspiracy was highly lucrative: a 9-mm gun bought in Georgia for $200 can be resold in Brooklyn for $1,000. Quick was paid a total of $126,000 over the course of the investigation.
The District Attorney thanked Detective John Edgar of the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau, Firearms Investigations Unit; his supervisors, Captain Robert Van Houten, Lieutenant Michael Jennings and Sergeant Donald Morgan; and the undercover officer for their partnership in this successful investigation.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bennett of the District Attorney’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Tara Lenich, Deputy Bureau Chief, under the supervision of Nicole Chavis, Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney William E. Schaeffer, Chief of the District Attorney’s Investigations Division.
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