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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: 11 indicted; 556 guns seized 11 indicted; 556 guns seized By Mark Harrison A two-year undercover investigation into gun sales at north Alabama flea markets – including Collinsville Trade Day – resulted in charges against 11 people and the seizure of 556 weapons, authorities said Wednesday. U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said the suspects were accused of running businesses that sold weapons without the proper license. Hobbyists can legally sell guns without a license, she said, but the 11 were making sales too frequently to be legal. “These people who are operating every Saturday and Sunday and are selling hundreds of guns have gone beyond hobby,” said Martin, who announced the arrests at a news conference in Huntsville. Nine of the suspects are from Alabama, and two others were from Georgia and Tennessee. One of those indicted is Hixon Eugene Padgett, 73, of Fyffe. He is charged with two counts of dealing in firearms without a license in DeKalb and Jackson counties and one count of selling a firearm to an out-of-state resident. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on each count. In addition to Padgett, others indicted were: James Edward Hancock, 63, of Dutton; Robert Conrad Coats, 70, of Rockmart, Ga.; Teddy Neal Hill, 69, of Boaz; Jessie Wilton Thompson, 78, of Gadsden, and Eddie Ray Wilbanks, 48, of Jasper, Tenn.; James Allen Bailey, 66, of Altoona; Glen Edward Stewart, 55, of Albertville, and Billy Dean James, 63, of Gurley; David Marchel Miller, 66, of Princeton, and James Herman Smart, 59, of Scottsboro. Most are charged with illegally selling firearms in DeKalb and surrounding counties. “We first noticed a major problem in DeKalb County a few years ago,” said DeKalb County Drug and Major Crime Task Force Commander Darrel Collins. “We were making a number of arrests in drug-related cases and law enforcement in general was making a lot of arrests where we found people in possession of firearms who should not legally be able to purchase them. “This was either because they were in the country illegally, or they were underage or convicted felons. The only way they could get firearms would be on the black market and what we found was that they were getting them from Trade Day and other area flea markets.” He said area law enforcement representatives met with ATF officials and requested an investigation – this resulted in the launch of Operation Flea Collar. Martin said undercover officers bought 166 guns that were sold illegally at Collinsville Trade Day, Taco-Bet Trade Day in Dutton and a gun show in Birmingham. Officers using hidden cameras made tapes of some of the sellers agreeing to gun transactions even after agents claimed to be fresh out of prison or from other states. Federal law prohibits convicted felons from possessing guns and bans crossing state lines to buy guns, Martin said. Most of the transactions involved handguns, including a small, .22-caliber pistol that can be hidden in a holster that resembles a wallet. A grand jury indicted seven of the defendants, and prosecutors filed criminal informations, indicating plea deals, with four. Records show the 11 bought and sold guns that were subsequently recovered from crime scenes as far away as Detroit and Los Angeles. One of those guns was used in the attempted murder of a police office in Chicago, prosecutors said, and another was involved in a murder-for-hire scheme in New York. — The Associated Press contributed to this story
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#1. To: Siagah, All (#0)
ATF As usual... Same thing happend to this man: Kurt W. As well as many others: http://www.atfabuse.com/senate1982.html "The Subcommittee received evidence that BATF has primarily devoted its Agents anxious to generate an impressive arrest and gun confiscation quota have Sites looking to gather abuse-reports...
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