Social Media is the Downfall of These Dummies: NYPD Announces Biggest Gun Bust in City History

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TODD MAISEL, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and OCCB Chief Thomas Purtell examine seized weapons at the press conference at Police Plaza, including this Mach 10 with silencer.


The biggest gun bust in city history netted more than 250 firearms, 19 arrests and a wiretap where a suspect says he fears stop-and-frisk, officials said Monday.

A lone undercover cop bought the weapons over the last year from two Southern weapons runners, leading to their arrest along with 17 accomplices, officials said Monday.

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TODD MAISEL, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
In addition to all of the guns seized, 19 people were arrested it was announced Monday.
"Thank God these guns are off the streets," Mayor Bloomberg said at Police Headquarters, surrounded by law enforcement officials and standing before two tables filled with dozens of firearms, including military-grade automatic weapons.

"There is no doubt that the seizure of these guns has saved lives."

NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly heaped praise on the unnamed undercover detective, who did not appear at the news conference in order to protect his identity and ongoing work.

"More than 200 guns is an astonishing number to recover by one undercover," Kelly said.


Both Bloomberg and Kelly seized upon a comment from suspect Earl Campbell of Rock Hill, S.C., who was caught on wiretap saying he didn't want to bring guns to Brooklyn for fear they would be discovered if he were stopped and frisked.

TODD MAISEL, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
More than 200 guns were seized by New York’s Finest, a number Commissioner Raymond Kelly called 'astonishing.'
"I'm in Brownsville," Kelly quoted Campbell as saying. "We got like, umm, uh, whatchamacallit, stop and frisk."

Bloomberg credited the city's stop-and-frisk laws with taking 8,000 guns off the street.

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TODD MAISEL, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The firearms seized include military-grade weapons such as a fully automatic MAC-11 pistol with a silencer as large as the gun.
A federal judge found components of the practice unconstitutional and ordered major changes last week.

The gun-sales case began a year ago when an unrelated narcotics investigation uncovered evidence that aspiring Brooklyn rapper Matthew Best, 26, was selling weapons out of his makeshift Ocean Hill recording studio.

Best even alluded to the sales on Instagram and YouTube, Kelly said.

TODD MAISEL, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
A SKS semi-automatic Soviet-era rifle that will ‘go through a project door, through the next door, through a wall, through the next wall into the next apartment,’ a source says.
The investigation into Best led law enforcement to focus on Brooklyn gun broker, Adeji Omole, 31. Omole was buying guns from two men running unrelated but strikingly similar operations from the Carolinas, officials said.

The undercover detective soon started buying up scores of weapons from both men.

Aspiring Brooklyn rapper Matthew Best alluded to gun sales in Instagram posts and YouTube videos.
Campbell, 23, is accused of selling 90 guns, including two assault rifles, for nearly $75,000, during 24 meetings with the undercover officer beginning in October.

Walter Walker, 29, of Sanford, N.C., is accused of selling 116 guns, including five assault weapons and a machine gun, for $82,000 during 19 meetings with the undercover detective over 10 months beginning last September.

Best's photos drew the attention of investigators, who uncovered evidence that he was selling weapons out of his makeshift Ocean Hill recording studio.
Both men personally carried up to 14 guns at a time to the city, often traveling on overnight buses to Chinatown, Kelly said.

The undercover snapped up every gun the two runners offered during the investigation to prevent them from hitting the streets, officials said.

The investigation into Best led law enforcement to Brooklyn gun broker, Adeji Omole.
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During one sale, Campbell's girlfriend, Kendall Danielle Jones, who has also been indicted, tried to assemble a Norinco SKS assault rifle from parts she pulled from her zebra-striped suitcase, officials said.

TODD MAISEL, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Bloomberg and Kelly stood before two tables filled with dozens of firearms, including military-grade automatic weapons.
Even after consulting a YouTube instructional video on her smartphone, she was unable to put the lethal weapon together. The undercover agreed to buy it disassembled for $1,100, officials said.

"It's both horrifying and comical," Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan said of the sale.

TODD MAISEL, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Both Bloomberg and Kelly highlighted a comment by suspect Earl Campbell of Rock Hill, S.C.,who said he didn't want to go to Brooklyn for fear of stop-and-frisk.
"They had no concept of the violence and mayhem they were causing. It was all about money."

Both Walker and Campbell tapped a loose network of suppliers in the Carolinas, who were aware their guns would be sold illegally in New York, officials said. Those suppliers have been indicted as well after being identified through wiretaps.

@NYPDNEWS/VIA TWITTER
Photo tweeted by NYPD show half of the illegal guns seized from traffickers in North and South Carolina.
Arrests of the suspects began Aug. 2.

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TODD MAISEL / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The Country Kitchen Restaurant at 1991 Atlantic Avenue, corner of Saratoga Avenue in Brownsville, Brooklyn where the gun gang was operating.
Guns seized in the massive bust announced Monday included a fully automatic MAC-11 pistol with a silencer as large as the gun.

"In about five seconds, you get 32 rounds spraying down the street," a law enforcement source said of the gun.

The seizure also includes two SKS, a semi-automatic Soviet-era rifle. One had a laser-dot sight attached and a suppressor on the front that eliminates flash and smoke to make it harder to tell where the gunman is firing from.

"This SKS will go through a project door, through the next door, through a wall, through the next wall into the next apartment," the source said.

"That will go through a car, a cop's armor. That will go through anything we've got."

The mayor has poured millions of dollars of his personal fortune into lobbying for tighter gun-control laws nationwide.

"Year after year guns flow into our city from states that don't have common sense gun laws," Bloomberg said Monday.

"Weak gun laws at the federal and state level have a direct and growing impact on the safety of people in our city."



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