Showing posts with label INCLUDING TWO ASSAULT WEAPONS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label INCLUDING TWO ASSAULT WEAPONS. Show all posts

Sunday, March 24, 2019

BRONX MAN INDICTED FOR SELLING 13 FIREARMS, INCLUDING TWO ASSAULT WEAPONS, TO UNDERCOVER COP


  Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Bronx man has been charged in a 77-count indictment for selling 11 handguns and two semi-automatic rifles to an undercover detective in the Bronx. 

 District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant allegedly possessed these dangerous weapons in the Bronx, and sold them to a courageous NYPD detective posing as a gun buyer. Fortunately, these firearms were intercepted before they could harm anyone in our community, and this alleged gun dealer is out of business. We will do everything we can to stop the flow of illegal guns to our streets.”  
 District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Frankie Esperanza, 34, of 2816 Schley Avenue, was arraigned today on an indictment charging 77 counts including Criminal Sale of a Firearm, Criminal Possession of a Weapon and Possession of Ammunition before Bronx Supreme Court Justice George Villegas. Bail was set at $250,000 bond. He is due back in court on June 19, 2019. If convicted of the top charge of first-degree Criminal Sale of a Firearm, the defendant could face five to 25 years in prison.

 According to the investigation, Esperanza allegedly sold 13 firearms to an undercover NYPD detective on eight different occasions spanning from August 8, 2018 until January 28, 2019, at various locations in the Throggs Neck area of the Bronx. The weapons included two semi-automatic rifles and a high-capacity magazine. More than two hundred rounds of ammunition were also sold.

 District Attorney Clark thanked NYPD Deputy Inspector Brian V. Gill, Commanding Officer of the Firearms Suppression Section; NYPD Captain Jonathan P. Korbell, Commanding Officer; NYPD Detective Jonathan Jordan and Detective Dennis Kenefick from the Firearms Investigation Unit, and NYPD Detective Douglas Lansing of the Drug Enforcement Task Force, formerly of the Firearms Investigation Unit, for their assistance in the investigation. 

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