3 cousins nabbed in interstate gun trafficking ring, 100 firearms taken off NYC streets: prosecutors.
Three cousins were busted in an interstate gun trafficking ring as authorities wiped 109 guns — including 20 assault weapons — off the streets of the Big Apple, Queens prosecutors said Monday.
Abdul Haruna, 27, of the Bronx, Murtala Haruna, 30, of Cincinnati, and Ahmed “Taju” Mutalib, 32, of Decatur, Georgia, were hit with a 575-count indictment charging them with criminal sale of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon, conspiracy and money laundering, the Queens District Attorney’s office said.
The trio were arrested after selling nearly 100 guns to an undercover NYPD cop on several occasions from June through August, prosecutors said.
The massive takedown – dubbed Operation Chainline – also netted 139 high-capacity magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, officials said.
“This case underscores some disturbing truths: First, illegal guns proliferate and circulate in many neighborhoods that still need our help,” NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said in a statement. “And second, every day the men and women of the NYPD perform incredibly dangerous work to prevent these firearms from getting into criminals’ hands.”
Authorities were on the tail of the gun-smuggling kin since March – when a confidential tipster informed them that weapons were being funneled from the Midwest into New York through the notorious Iron Pipeline, the DA’s office said.
An investigation led authorities to the parking lot of P.C. Richard & Son, on Steinway Street near 36th Avenue in Astoria, where an undercover NYPD cop purchased dozens of weapons and a massive stash of ammunition from the cousins, prosecutors said.
The first sting took place on June 10, when Mutalib sold the undercover cop a dozen guns with unloaded magazines, as well as 10 large-capacity magazines, according to the DA’s office.
Abdul Haruna, who was present, counted the money, authorities said.
Then on June 27, the officer bought 16 semi-automatic pistols, also with unloaded magazines, three rifles, one shotgun and 900 rounds of 9 mm ammunition from Mutalib, officials said.
