A man has been charged on more than 300 counts related to the illegal sale of firearms in the city of New York.
The Bronx district attorney charged Shakor Rodriguez, 23, with 304 counts across two indictments after he allegedly sold numerous weapons to an undercover police officer, the district attorney’s office announced Wednesday.
“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,” District Attorney Darcel Clark said. “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.”
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The New York Police Department arrested Rodriguez on Dec. 22, 2021, after a sting operation called “Operation Overnight Express” that began in July 2020. Rodriguez, a student at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, smuggled the weapons up from the South, the district attorney’s office said.
His charges include the criminal sale of a firearm, criminal possession of a firearm, and several other charges for the sale of 73 weapons and more than 40 magazines to an undercover officer, who paid between $1,000 and $1,500 per gun, according to the statement.
New York Mayor Eric Adams has pushed to crack down on illegal weapons. Adams announced new policies last week that will increase funding for anti-gun violence investigators.
“We will not surrender our city to the violent view … and we won’t go back to the bad old days,” Adams said. “We’re going to get trigger pullers off the streets and guns out of their hands.”
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Gun arrests have increased by 52% since 2018, ABC 7 New York found. However, charges for those crimes have decreased from over 14,000 in 2009 to less than 5,000 in 2020.
Rodriguez will appear in court Monday.
