OPERATION OVERNIGHT EXPRESS: COLLEGE STUDENT INDICTED FOR SELLING 73 FIREARMS TO UNDERCOVER OFFICER

 

Defendant Allegedly Brought Firearms from Tennessee By Bus; Weapons Included 59 Loaded Guns, Over 40 High-Capacity Magazines

 Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark and New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell today announced that a 23-year-old man has been indicted on hundreds of counts of Criminal Sale of a Firearm, Criminal Possession of a Firearm and related charges for trafficking 73 weapons and high capacity magazines to the Bronx and Manhattan, where they were sold to an undercover NYPD officer. 

 District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant allegedly brought these semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines up from the south, sometimes transporting them in a duffle bag by bus. Dozens of the firearms were loaded and four are considered assault weapons. The NYPD worked diligently to intercept these deadly weapons before they hit our streets. Bronxites are dying from gunfire and we cannot tolerate one more illegal gun in our community.”

 Commissioner Sewell said, “Stopping traffickers who flood our streets with illegal guns is mission critical in our work to smash the Iron Pipeline. The NYPD’s officers, working with their prosecutorial partners in the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, are the first line of defense in protecting our residents, our families, and our children from the scourge of gun violence and I commend their work in this important case.”

 District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Shakor Rodriguez, 23, originally from the Bronx, who was attending Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, is charged in two indictments totaling 304 counts. He was arraigned January 24, 2022 on 79 counts including Criminal Sale of a Firearm, Criminal Possession of a Weapon, Criminal Possession of a Firearm, and Possession of Ammunition before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Albert Lorenzo. He was remanded and is due back in court January 31, 2022.

 On December 23, 2021 he was arraigned before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Efrain Alvarado on 225 counts including Criminal Sale of a Firearm, Criminal Possession of a Weapon, Conspiracy and Criminal Possession of a Firearm.

 According to the investigation by the NYPD Firearms Investigations Unit and the Bronx District Attorney’s Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau, dubbed “Operation Overnight Express,” between July 17, 2020 and December 22, 2021, in the Bronx and Manhattan, Shakor Rodriguez, also known as “Sha,” allegedly sold an undercover officer 73 firearms, of which 59 were loaded, as well as over 40 high capacity magazines, including multiple “drum” magazines. The undercover paid typically between $1,000 and $1,500 per gun.

  According to the investigation, the defendant sold most of the weapons near his former home in the vicinity of Weeks Avenue and Nelson Avenue in the Bronx, and multiple sales occurred on Allen Street in Manhattan. The investigation is continuing into how he obtained the guns and where they were purchased.

 The investigation found the defendant transported guns in duffle bags and in some instances traveled with them by bus.

 District Attorney Clark also thanked the NYPD’s Firearms Investigations Unit for their work in the investigation, specifically Detective Gustavo Medina, Sergeant Brian O’Hanlon, Lieutenant Michael Raso, Captain Jeffrey Heilig and Inspector Brian Gill. 

 An indictment is an accusatory instrument and is not proof of a defendant’s guilt.