- 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.
Source:
New York Post
