12 North Jersey residents arrested for alleged gun trafficking as 74 firearms seized

PATERSON — New York authorities seized 74 firearms — including 17 assault weapons — in busting an alleged North Jersey gun-trafficking ring coordinated by a 24-year-old Paterson man who reportedly got help from his 42-year-old mother.

Twelve of the 13 people arrested in the takedown lived in Paterson, Hackensack, Wayne, and Passaic, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James. The other suspect is a man from Florida who authorities say sent the illegal weapons to the Paterson ringleader through the mail.

The Paterson leader used such codewords as “toys,” “sneakers,” or “panties” when he arranged the gun purchases, New York officials said. Once he got the weapons in the mail, the Paterson man stored the firearms at his home in Paterson as well as the homes of two Paterson women also arrested in the case, authorities said.

The leader’s mother helped him “move, hide, store, and pay for the firearms,” said the New York AG’s Office.

The ring didn’t sell the guns in New Jersey. Instead, they drove the weapons to Washington Heights in Manhattan, hiding the guns in blankets, sheets, reusable grocery bags, and one time inside a guitar case, New York officials said.

The gun sales took place at 178th Street and Wadsworth Avenue — “consistently...on the same street corner in Washington Heights,” said the New York AG’s press release, which was issued on Thursday. New York officials did not specify when the arrests took place. Local law enforcement sources in New Jersey said raids occurred in Paterson and Wayne on Tuesday.

Authorities said they also confiscated more than 2,100 bullets and about 500 grams of cocaine with a street value of about $15,700. Four of the seized weapons were “ghost guns,” firearms without serial numbers that usually are put together part by part, and are untraceable.

“As a result of our investigation, we took dozens of dangerous and illegal guns and narcotics out of our communities and stopped this multistate crime operation from continuing to profit off violence,” said James in the press release.

The investigation started in August of 2023 and detectives used wiretaps in gathering evidence, authorities said.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: 12 North Jersey residents arrested for alleged gun trafficking as 74 firearms seized