Pair Charged With Stealing Collector's Guns, Selling Them Across Cook County
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Two Elmwood Park men have been arrested on gun trafficking charges after allegedly stealing at least 30 firearms from a collector and selling the guns all over Cook County.
WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports 19-year-old Jorge Figueroa and Ricardo Martinez have been charged with gun-running and illegal transfer of a firearm.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said the guns were taken in a garage burglary in River Grove while the owner – a gun collector – was in the hospital. The man and his family were unaware they were gone until the sheriff's department and other police agencies found them.
Dart said the case was "incredibly unique," because the guns were seized before they could be used in crimes.
"Normally, when we're talking about guns being recovered, we're talking about guns being recovered after they've been used in crimes. We were able to recover all of these guns before they were used in any crimes," the sheriff said.
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Dart, standing in front of two tables covered with the guns, said one of his deputies recovered one of the stolen guns after pulling over Figueroa for a traffic stop, and things snowballed from there.
He said sheriff's deputies, along Franklin Park police and other agencies, tracked down the other stolen guns and recovered them before they could be used in crimes.
"One gun was sold for a boa constrictor, one gun was sold for a bike, and then the other ones more for typical cash. You know, these guns were not going to collectors," he said.
The sheriff said the people who bought the guns cooperated with investigators, and were not facing charges in the case.
