Four arrested in multi-state gun smuggling ring
NEW YORK -- New York City and state authorities announced the arrest Friday of a fourth person involved in a "high-volume gun trafficking ring" that allegedly funneled guns from South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee to New York City, often using Greyhound buses and Uber as transportation.
According to the New York Attorney General's Office, which worked with the NYPD on the case, Donovan Bryant, a North Carolina resident who uses a wheelchair, allegedly transported the guns with help from three others -- a woman he lived with named Shantae Blue, Uber driver Marlon Manswell, and supplier Colby Inabinet.
All four were charged on Thursday. Inabinet, who was at large in South Carolina, Friday became the fourth suspect taken into custody.
Bryant allegedly used Manswell, who they believe picked him up at Manhattan's Port Authority more than once, to drive him to meet an undercover officer in two Brooklyn neighborhoods. There, he allegedly sold the officer guns between June and October of this year.
The "take-down" was the result of a joint investigation of the NYPD and the Attorney General's Organized Crime Task Force that used undercover officers, wiretaps, and other surveillance, leading to the seizure of 50 illegal smuggled guns. The complaint quoted from alleged phone conversations and text messages referring to the sale of guns.
At one point in July, Bryant allegedly texted the undercover officer, saying, "got one more for u I made it happen 357 magnum."
At another point, in August, he allegedly told the same officer, "I've got a threaded barrel for the silencer part," referring to the .9 millimeter semi-automatic pistol he had just sold him.
Bryant is facing 51 counts of criminal sale of a firearm in the third degree, one count of criminal sale of a firearm in the first degree, and one count of conspiracy in the fourth degree.
Blue, of North Carolina, is charged with 18 counts of criminal sale of a firearm in the third degree, one count of criminal sale of a firearm in the first degree, and one count of conspiracy in the fourth degree.
Manswell, of Brooklyn, is charged with 12 counts of criminal sale of a firearm in the third degree, one count of criminal sale of a firearm in the first degree, and one count of conspiracy in the fourth degree.
Inabinet, of Greenville, South Carolina , is facing 1 count of criminal sale of a firearm in the third degree, one count of criminal sale of a firearm in the second degree, and one count of conspiracy in the fourth degree.
"This investigation illustrates gun traffickers' greed for profit and their disturbing indifference to the death that illegal firearms continue to bring to our families,"said Police Commissioner William J. Bratton in a statement put out by the AG's office.