Law enforcement officials say they've broken up an illegal gun-dealing scheme. In some cases, people with drug problems were recruited to buy guns so they could be sold on Buffalo streets.
Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda says he has been hearing Juan Lopez' name for years as central to violent crime on city streets. The name may continue in crime investigations but the man is behind high walls, currently those of Attica. He's there until at least 2024 for two attempted murders.
On Wednesday, Chief Federal District Judge William Skretny extended the Lopez stay in jail, sentencing him to nine years in prison on his guilty plea to gun possession charges while a felon. That sentence will start whenever he finishes his state charges.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Catherine Baumgarten says Lopez needed people with no records to buy guns in Bradford, Pennsylvania.
"He found out whatever these people wanted. He met each of these individuals through somebody else who was engaged in criminal conduct with him, primarily his drug trafficking and then took advantage of the situation and went down to Pennsylvania with them. Those individuals went into the establishment and actually purchased the firearm," Baumgarten said.
Lopez then took the guns and tried to remove the serial numbers. He didn't succeed and five of the guns were traced back to two Bradford licensed gun dealers who sold weapons to people with clean records who are known in the gun trade as "straw purchasers." Many of them turned against Lopez to police.
Of the nine guns purchased in this drug trading, police say four are still on the street.
