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Press Release
CHICAGO — A Chicago man who helped purchase 43 firearms in Indiana and transport them to Illinois for sale on the streets of Chicago was sentenced today to 37 months in prison.
After purchasing the weapons at gun shows and from individual vendors in Crown Point and Indianapolis, WINSTON GERALDS helped bring the firearms into Illinois and sell them on the South Side of Chicago. Unbeknownst to Geralds, the Chicago buyer was cooperating with law enforcement officers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Geralds, 25, pleaded guilty in May to one count of illegally transporting firearms across state lines. U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee imposed the 37-month sentence in federal court in Chicago.
“The defendant arranged for the sale of unregistered and untraceable firearms on the side streets and back alleys of Chicago’s neighborhoods,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bethany K. Biesenthal and Christopher V. Parente argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “By directly assisting in the supply of firearms to this city, the defendant very directly contributed to the cycle of gun violence.”
Geralds used middlemen to facilitate selling the guns to the cooperating source. In four separate meetings on April 22, 2012, the middlemen sold 20 weapons to the cooperating source at locations in the Greater Grand Crossing and Chinatown neighborhoods of Chicago. The following day, the middlemen sold 23 more guns to the cooperating source in a Chinatown parking lot.
Five other defendants, including one middleman, were charged in connection with this investigation:
The sentence was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Jeffery Magee, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Police assisted in the investigation, which was conducted with the Chicago High Intensity Drug Trafficking Task Force (HIDTA).
The government is represented by Ms. Biesenthal and Mr. Parente.