Federal prosecutors in the United States have unsealed a 23-count indictment alleging that a gun bought by an accused trafficker in Georgia was used in a fatal shooting in Chicago just 36 days later, as part of a wider firearms-smuggling network said to have supplied street gangs across two states.
Five men — Anthony Edmond and Melvin Griffin, both of Georgia, and Rafael Enriquez, Elijah Lucena and Keontice Reed, all of Chicago — were arrested this week on charges including conspiracy to traffic firearms, conspiracy to possess machine guns in furtherance of drug trafficking, and interstate travel with intent to traffic weapons. The indictment, filed in the Middle District of Georgia and announced by US Attorney William “Will” Keyes, was filed on 15 April and unsealed on 23 June, following an investigation by a Homeland Security Task Force led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
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At the centre of the case, according to prosecutors, is Edmond, also known by the street names “Chapo” and “Chapo Barksdale,” who is alleged to be a member of Chicago’s Black Disciples gang and an associate of the Conservative Vice Lords. Investigators say he directed the other defendants to carry out so-called straw purchases — buying firearms from licensed dealers in the Athens, Georgia area while falsely declaring on the required ATF Form 4473 that he was the genuine buyer, rather than acquiring the weapons on behalf of someone else. Prosecutors allege Edmond bought at least 22 firearms over a single ten-month stretch between September 2020 and July 2021, part of a operation they say ran from 2020 until this year and moved dozens of guns from Georgia into Illinois and Indiana.
Those weapons, prosecutors allege, were then distributed to members of several Chicago gangs, including the Black Disciples, the Conservative Vice Lords and the Mickey Cobras, with gang members in the city said to have placed orders with the Georgia side of the operation. The group is accused of coordinating purchases and shipments by phone and social media using coded language, referring to firearms as “pipes,” “straps,” “licks” and “blicks,” and to specific calibres by nicknames such as “dimes” for 10mm pistols and “nickels” for .45-calibre weapons.
Prosecutors also allege that Enriquez supplied Edmond with devices capable of converting semi-automatic Glock pistols into fully automatic weapons, which Edmond is said to have fitted onto pistols before passing them on. The group is alleged to have referred to these devices as “Nintendos,” a reference to the video games console, because of their appearance once attached to a pistol.
The human cost of the alleged network came into focus, prosecutors said, when Chicago police recovered a Glock pistol from the bedroom of a juvenile gang member and traced it forensically to three separate shootings in the city in 2021. Investigators allege the same weapon, bought in Georgia, was linked to a murder on 20 June 2021 that occurred just 36 days after its purchase, as well as a later shooting aboard a Chicago Transit Authority bus in September of that year. In total, authorities say they recovered 20 of the trafficked firearms across Illinois, Indiana and Georgia during the course of the investigation.
Prosecutors have not released details of bond arrangements or confirmed whether all five defendants have yet made their initial court appearances. If convicted on all counts, Edmond, Enriquez and Griffin each face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, while Reed faces up to 20 years and Lucena up to 10 years. All five defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
