PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Federal authorities have arrested two men from North Carolina and a woman from South Carolina for trafficking more than four-dozen guns up to Philadelphia.
Najee Cunningham, 31, and James Cunningham, 27, both of Wilmington, N.C., and Rickia Adams, 24, of Marion, S.C., are charged with conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and possession of a firearm by a felon.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began tracking the guns last year after noticing a pattern of movement up the East Coast, known as the "iron pipeline."
A number of guns recovered by Philadelphia authorities — many of which were connected to shootings, homicides and illegal gun-possession cases — had been purchased by the same individuals in Ohio, South Carolina, and North Carolina, according to the ATF. That, plus the short amount of time from the guns' purchase to their use in a crime in the city, indicated that they may have been trafficked. In the case of this indictment, the alleged “time to crime” was as short as one day.
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The defendants are alleged to have purchased more than 50 guns in a year's time to be transported to the Philadelphia area for sale on the black market. So far, at least half of those guns have been taken off the street.
If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Philadelphia experienced its highest number of homicides in recorded history last year, and it is on track to outpace that number this year.
