Press Release
☷Cincinnati man pleads guilty to leading firearms conspiracy involving 56 guns purchased online with stolen credit cards
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ( By Press Release office)
Feb 02,2024
| 1| 1
A guy from Cincinnati just pleaded guilty in court today for a bunch of crimes . He was buying guns using stolen credit card info and leading a group of people to pick up the guns in illegal purchases . He also got caught getting a fake COVID relief loan . This 21 - year - old named Zephaniah Jones admitted to making false statements , stealing people ' s identities , and lying to the Small Business Administration . According to court documents , from April to July 2022 , Jones and his crew tried to order guns online from Guns . com and other sites to be delivered to Cincinnati . They managed to get 37 guns out of the 56 they ordered . But since it ' s illegal to ship guns directly to them , they had to go through a dealer . At the dealer , Jones ' s buddies lied on the forms pretending to be the real buyers . But really , they were all for Jones to sell . Jones used stolen credit cards and addresses to place the orders . In just two weeks , he spent over $15 , 000 on guns using stolen credit cards . He bought a bunch of the same guns , like 14 Glock pistols , 11 F . N . Five - Seven pistols , and six FN 509 pistols , with the plan to resell them . Some of the guns they got ended up being used in crimes shortly after . For example , one pistol was used to shoot at a house in Columbus just 15 days after it was bought . Another gun ended up with a juvenile who used it in a different shooting incident . In addition to all that , Jones also lied on an application to get a loan for his fake lawn care business . He got almost $21 , 000 from the Paycheck Protection Program , and he didn ' t have to pay it back . The people involved in Jones ' s case want him to go to prison for 79 months . Five other people involved in the illegal gun purchases have also been charged . The U . S . Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio and the Bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco , Firearms & Explosives announced the guilty plea . The ATF looked into the case with some help from the Cincinnati Police Department and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office .
PLAY the NEWS
* May be useful for visually impaired persons .
Press release information:
Direct link to press release:
Click here .
