Feds accuse Sacramento man of running $160,000 gun trafficking scheme through mail
A Sacramento man accused of running a gun trafficking scheme that illegally put hundreds of guns for sale on California’s black market after they were mailed into the state from Georgia was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday.
Jerrell Lawson, 31, and four other co-conspirators are accused of engaging in illicit transactions involving more than 500 firearms totaling more than $162,000 between November 2019 and October 2021, U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert of the Eastern District of California announced in a news release.
Lawson was charged along with Aisha Hoggatt, 29, of Sacramento; Malek Williams, 28, of Atlanta; Terrence Phillips, 39, of Union City, California; and James Gordley, 32, of Modesto.
Lawson would “broker firearms transactions in Georgia over the internet” and Williams, a Georgia resident licensed to carry a concealed firearm, would pick up the firearms and mail them to “various locations in California at Lawson’s discretion,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote.
The criminal complaint shows the firearms were distributed in several cities including Sacramento, Turlock and Martinez.
Hoggatt, Phillips and Gordley are accused of helping to coordinate the purchase and mailing of the firearms, as well as distributing them in California.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case.
The investigation launched stemmed from a shooting in Sacramento in late 2020 that injured three people, court records show.
The shooting happened Dec. 5, 2020, in the 6800 block of Fruitridge Road. News reports at the time, including one from ABC 10, indicated the shooting happened outside an “underground” party at a Fruitridge Manor strip mall.
“Officers subsequently recovered approximately 111 spent cartridge casings at the location,” the criminal complaint says. “Three people were shot during the incident. During a subsequent search of a car used to transport one of the victims to the hospital, (Sacramento Police Department) officers recovered a Glock.”
ATF determined the Glock was sold in June 2020 by a federally licensed firearms dealer at a pawn shop in Newnan, Georgia.
“A subsequent sale of the firearm led to Lawson’s organization,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in Thursday’s news release.
“Lawson and his co-conspirators used coded language to traffic firearms and moved money using a variety of financial institutions,” prosecutors wrote. “During the investigation, interdicted packages destined for Lawson and other co-conspirators were found to contain firearms, ammunition, knives, and brass knuckles, among other things.”
Many of the mailed firearms were Glock pistols, according to the criminal complaint.
Lawson was arrested by ATF agents March 11 and remained in custody at the Sacramento County Main Jail on a federal hold as of Thursday.
All five defendants were charged with unlawful dealing of firearms and conspiracy to unlawfully deal firearms.
Lawson, Hoggatt, Williams and Phillips were each additionally charged with unlawful mailing of a firearm and of transferring a firearm to an out-of-state resident. Lawson also faces a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Each count of conspiracy and of unlawful firearms dealing carries a maximum fire-year sentence in federal prison. Unlawful mailing of a firearm carries a two-year sentence.
Gordley and Phillips made initial court appearances Thursday afternoon. Other court dates remain pending.
