Gun-trafficking ring busted, dozens of firearms recovered: Brooklyn DA

April 10, 2019 Noah Goldberg

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announces the indictment of three men accused of running a Brooklyn gun-trafficking ring. Eagle photo by Noah Goldberg.

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The NYPD recovered dozens of firearms in an undercover sting that toppled a Brooklyn gun-trafficking ring, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Wednesday.

Three men were indicted for allegedly trafficking guns up the “iron pipeline,” from South Carolina to Brooklyn, Gonzalez said.

“The guns that were recovered as part of this investigation are exactly the types of weapons used to commit violence in our communities,” Gonzalez said. “These indictments reflect our continued commitment to focusing on drivers of crime, maintaining public safety and stopping the influx of guns into Brooklyn from southern states with lax gun laws. I thank the police and my prosecutors for their joint efforts in this case.”

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez shows reporters a machine gun recovered in an NYPD undercover sting of a gun-trafficking ring. Eagle photo by Noah Goldberg. — Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez shows reporters a machine gun recovered in an NYPD undercover sting of a gun-trafficking ring. Eagle photo by Noah Goldberg

Markie Brown, Darryll Currie and Craig Darby were all charged with criminal sale of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon, and conspiracy. They each face up to 25 years in prison.

Darby — a South Carolina resident awaiting extradition to New York — was accused of buying the guns legally in his home state and trafficking them up I-95 to Brooklyn, where Currie and Brown sold them on the streets, sometimes at crowded intersections in broad daylight.

The arrests were part of an NYPD undercover sting that started in June 2018. One undercover detective bought all 36 guns involved in the operation from Brown. One of the weapons recovered was a machine gun.

According to Gonzalez, the guns sold for about $1,000 each.

In one audio clip from a buy, Brown said he could get 40 more guns for the undercover buyer. “He got drakes. He got AR15s,” Brown said of his supplier.

The AR15 is a make of semi-automatic rifle used in many mass shootings, including the Parkland shooting.

The gun sales took place in Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant, according to the district attorney.

In early March, Gonzalez and the NYPD had a joint press conference to address rising gun violence in Brooklyn in early 2019. “My office works very closely with the New York City Police Department, particularly on gun cases,” Gonzalez said at the press conference.

The investigation into the gun-trafficking ring also unveiled a Brooklyn narcotics operation, the district attorney said.

Currie was allegedly also selling heroin. He bought it from Dorian Cabrera, whose supplier was Fred Chapman, the district attorney said.

Chapman and Cabrera both face 12.5 to 25 years maximum for criminal sale of a controlled substance.

Brown and Currie were arraigned before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice William Harrington. Brown’s bail was set at $250,000 and Currie’s was set at $100,000.

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