Law enforcement agents arrested five men through “Operation Stone Cold,” which looked to stun the operation of an “iron pipeline” of firearms between New York City and Georgia, authorities announced on Tuesday.
During a press conference about the operation at One Police Plaza, police displayed the 43 firearms confiscated through the operation — including many handguns, several revolvers and two high-powered assault weapons, one of which was equipped with a tube launcher that could potentially fire explosive rounds.
The investigation ranged from March 2018 to January 2020, officials said. Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance announced the arrest of Justin Holmes-Austin, 33, and Thomas Solomon, 49, for selling 40 firearms and corresponding ammunition to an undercover NYPD detective.
The indictment also charges Samuel Saunders, 43, and two Georgia residents Jarvin Anderson, 27, and Kintrel Thompson, 35, for “knowingly supplying the firearms for illegal sales in New York City.”
They were all named in a 74-count New York State Supreme Court indictment with conspiracy in the fifth degree, as well as various counts of criminal sale of a firearm in the first- and third-degrees, and other related charges.
“These defendants put the safety of our neighborhoods up for sale in a case that demonstrates a life-threatening gap in our state’s otherwise strong gun laws,” said Vance. “My Office and our courageous partners in the NYPD’s Firearms Suppression Division have already taken more than 1,800 trafficked guns off New York City’s streets, but there’s an urgent need to discourage these merchants of death from doing business here in the first place.”
Chief of Detectives Rodney K. Harrison was joined by members of the Firearms Suppression Division, who supervised the case with numerous undercover detectives to make 24 firearms transactions of 43 guns.
Harrison said the top counts could land the suspects in jail for 25 years to life in prison. He called the undercover detectives involved in the sting “very brave” in completing the buys, which involved purchasing the weapons for between $300 to $1,700 a piece.
Most of the buys were made in East Harlem or in the Bronx. Of those weapons, five were stolen some were just passed around and others came from gun purchases in the state.
“These people were trying to supply the tools of the trade with the capacity to end life,” Harrison said. “They would’ve flooded the streets with illegal guns and gun violence is a single focus for us.”
Vance said he is proposing a new “Gun Kingpin” bill to establish the crime of “operating as a major firearms trafficker,” which would carry a penalty of up to 25 years to life in prison for selling 20 or more firearms in the space of a year.
He maintained “this is the level of deterrence necessary to keep out-of-state guns off our streets. We implore our colleagues in Albany: do not rest until the number of New Yorkers killed by guns is zero.”
Vance also commented on bail reform, saying he would like the laws to be amended to allow judges more discretion in granting cash bail based on the seriousness of the crime and history.
“People who are held should be found to be a danger to the community, and in that, we must give the judges some discretion,” Vance added.
