Thirty-eight illegal guns, each with the potential to inflict pain and cause death, were taken off the streets of Queens and Brooklyn during the course of a 13-month undercover investigation of five alleged illegal gun merchants.[Photo caption: Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, front right, and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, front left, display a cache of illegal guns recovered during an investigation. (photo courtesy of the District Attorney’s Office)]
“Operation Tommy Gun” began in July 2007, when officers with the NYPD’s Firearms Investigation Unit and the Queens District Attorney’s Narcotics Investigations Bureau set up a sting operation that would last longer than a year and eventually lead to the arrests and indictment of the five men on Sept. 24.
Ozone Park residents Ali Kabeer, 25, and Ali Hassan, 42, and their three fellow defendants, all of Brooklyn, were charged in a 63-count indictment with first-, second- and third-degree criminal sale of a weapon, fifth-degree conspiracy and the manufacture, transport, disposition and defacement of weapons.
They allegedly sold more than three dozen weapons — among them an assault rifle, sawed-off shotguns and semi-automatic pistols with silencers — to undercover police officers at various locations in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan between July 2, 2007 and Aug. 21, 2008.
“The defendants are accused of attempting to seed the streets of New York with dozens of illegal weapons that would have posed a serious public safety threat if their plan had been carried out,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
The price of the 38 weapons, many of which had their serial numbers removed, ranged from $500 to $2,400, according to Brown. At least three of the illicit transactions during which the weapons were sold occurred in Queens.
It is alleged that Brooklyn resident Tommy Suarez, 26, acting in concert with Ali Kabeer, met with an undercover officer in the borough on July 23, 2007 and sold a defaced Tec 22.
On Jan. 24, 2008, Suarez again met with an undercover officer in Queens, this time selling a defaced .22-caliber sawed-off rifle, according to Brown.
Ali Hassan, acting in concert with Suarez on Feb. 4 in Queens, reportedly sold an undercover officer a 9 mm pistol and a silencer.
Suarez’s lawyer, David Zucker, said his client “maintains his innocence. He looks forward to proving it at trial.”
Calls to Hassan’s lawyer, Kevin O’Donnell, were not returned as of press time.
Each weapon was sent to the NYPD Ballistics Laboratory, which confirmed that all the firearms were operable, according to Brown.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said so far this year, more than 3,000 illegal guns, including these 38, were recovered. That the guns are out of criminals hands is one of the reasons New York City “remains the safest big city in the country,” he said.
Brown noted that efforts by police and prosecutors to track down and prosecute gun traffickers has significantly reduced the number of firearms on the city’s streets and even aided a record drop in murders this year.
City Councilman Joseph Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) has advocated for tougher state legislation on the matter of illegal guns.
Almost 60 percent of guns used to commit crimes originate with just 1 percent of gun dealers, and while firearms bought at gun shows are subject to background checks, “private” sales of long guns are not, according to Addabbo.
“It is unacceptable that New York State does not have stronger laws in place to protect our families and loved ones from illegal guns and persistent gun violence,” the Councilman said. Brown and law enforcement officials are doing outstanding work, he added, “but we in government can do better to help them.”
