“Today, the Justice Department has taken several significant enforcement actions to disrupt large-scale illegal gun and drug trafficking operations,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “I am grateful to all of the Department’s agents, prosecutors, and staff involved in these actions, as well as to our state and local partners, for their tireless work. The actions taken today represent the work that is being done by this Department every single day to disrupt violent crime, combat gun violence, and get deadly fentanyl out of our communities.”
Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, a seven-count indictment was unsealed charging David Mccann, Tajhai Jones, Raymond Minaya, and Calvin Tabron with allegedly conspiring to illegally traffic more than 50 firearms. Mccann and Minaya are also charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine base; Mccann is additionally charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl. Mccann, Jones, Minaya, and Tabron were arrested this morning. Mccann and Minaya are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Taryn A. Merkl. Jones and Tabron will be arraigned in Virginia.
This prosecution is the first in New York, and among the first in the country, to charge the gun trafficking provisions of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Congress and the President enacted in June 2022. The Act is the first federal statute specifically designed to target gun trafficking. Among other provisions, it creates a standalone firearm trafficking conspiracy offense, which the government has charged in this case to hold accountable those who conspire to illegally sell firearms. The Act provides for sentences of up to 15 years’ imprisonment.