CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - The Department of Justice’s Chicago Firearms Trafficking Strike Force has existed for a year now and its leader Monday provided an update on the unit’s progress.
John Lausch, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and leader of the strike force, issued the report. He said, with the collaboration of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and other federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, the objective was to curb the supply of illegally trafficked firearms as well as to find potential suspects in violent gun crimes. Thus far, the strike force has been effective in tracking down illegal gun traffickers.
“Firearms traffickers and straw purchasers enable violence. Over the past year, the cross-jurisdictional strike force has increased collaboration with our law enforcement partners and enhanced our longstanding efforts to hold accountable individuals or groups who illegally traffic firearms into Chicago,” Lasuch said.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, several dozen people have been either charged or convicted in federal counts in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
Lausch noted numerous examples of illegal gun traffickers nabbed by the strike force. In one such case, a man from Orland Hills, Arshad Zayed was charged with illegally selling 36 firearms in the Chicago area, which included “ghost guns” and machine guns. In another instance, the strike force tracked down Matthew Jamaal Johnson of Dolton. He was indicted for allegedly purchasing 27 handguns from suburban Chicago stores, falsifying on the federal purchasing forms that he was the buyer, but in reality was purchasing the guns for someone else.
The U.S. Attorney’s office said the strike force will continue.
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