Alabama man gets prison time for gun trafficking

An Alabama man has been sentenced to more than seventeen years in prison for burglarizing two gun stores. Marquis McCray was also convicted of possessing stolen firearms and transporting those weapons to states in the Midwest and East. Federal prosecutors said a U.S. district judge sentenced Marquis McCray and ordered him to pay over $58,000 in restitution for the value of the weapons stolen and damage to property. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Mississippi said in a news release that some of the weapons were sold on the streets of Chicago and New Jersey. Prosecutors said law enforcement also recovered some of the guns. Court documents say McCray orchestrated the burglary of Oxford Pawn Shop in which thirty five firearms were stolen. Authorities say McCray and his co-defendants then transported those guns to New Jersey where they were sold on the streets, according to authorities. Law enforcement in the Newark, New Jersey area recovered 10 of those guns after they were used in violent crimes. Officials say McCray also led a group in the 2019, burglary of TNT Pawn in Booneville, Mississippi, where almost fifty firearms were stolen and transported to Chicago. A number of those guns, sold on the streets, have been recovered by Chicago Police.