Lowell Man Sentenced to Prison for Gun Trafficking

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bruins2015

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Defendant purchased guns he claimed were for himself, but instead resold for profit; guns purchased are only allowed to be sold to active law enforcement officers
BOSTON – A Lowell man was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for firearms trafficking charges.
Isael Rodriguez, 29, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release. In January 2024, Rodriguez pleaded guilty to one count of dealing in firearms without a license and one count of making false statements to acquire firearms from a licensed dealer.
In January 2021 and June 2021, Rodriguez purchased a dozen Glock pistols from a licensed dealer for $500 each, falsely claiming that he was purchasing them for himself. Rodriguez then resold the firearms for profit to individuals in Massachusetts. Rodriguez is not a licensed importer, manufacturer, or dealer and Glock firearms are only allowed to be sold to active law enforcement officers.
Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; James Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Boston Field Division; Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox; Lowell Superintendent of Police Gregory C. Hudon; Brookline Police Chief Jennifer M. Paster; and Brockton Police Chief Brenda I. Perez made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Dawley of the Organized Crime & Gang Unit prosecuted the case.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

Wonder if he sold to those with an LTC. Also, "Glocks are only allowed to be sold to active law enforcement officers". [rofl]
 
Unless he had taken orders from others prior to buying the Glocks, he purchased the guns for himself. Intent to resell at a later date to yet-to-be identified purchasers should not be considered a ‘straw-buy’, at least in my book.

Any “actual” crime would have been committed by someone who bought the gun from him - not the sale/purchase itself, but a robbery, mugging, shooting, etc.
 
MaverickNH said:
Unless he had taken orders from others prior to buying the Glocks, he purchased the guns for himself. Intent to resell at a later date to yet-to-be identified purchasers should not be considered a ‘straw-buy’, at least in my book.
Click to expand...

Most of these people are stupid enough to take cash up front, all they need is one informant to get the target to take the money. I'm going to bet that there are probably multiple informants.

The bar for straws is so low that there are probably thousands of Americans that basically would qualify for a straw conviction without even knowing it. Paper gun crimes in this country are off the stack I bet I could interview a hundred pants shitters who jerk off over stupid f***ing preban mags and other garbage like that; and find out what felonies they've committed without knowing it. I would not be shocked if like one in every three gun owners has committed some kind of paper based state or federal felony. I'm sure you've probably been at a gun counter somewhere where some guy was talking to his buddy about something innocuous and then inadvertently revealed that him and his grandfather from another state just committed a straw or something. It's absurdly easy. 🤣
 
VetteGirlMA said:
This is the new and improved and heavily fortified ATF and another great reason why 90% of the ATF employees should receive pink slips today.
Click to expand...
I mean sounds like this has been on trial for a bit now

Gonna be interesting on appeal though... the whole economy is based on cavat empor except guns?
 
drgrant said:
Most of these people are stupid enough to take cash up front, all they need is one informant to get the target to take the money. I'm going to bet that there are probably multiple informants.

The bar for straws is so low that there are probably thousands of Americans that basically would qualify for a straw conviction without even knowing it. Paper gun crimes in this country are off the stack I bet I could interview a hundred pants shitters who jerk off over stupid f***ing preban mags and other garbage like that; and find out what felonies they've committed without knowing it. I would not be shocked if like one in every three gun owners has committed some kind of paper based state or federal felony. I'm sure you've probably been at a gun counter somewhere where some guy was talking to his buddy about something innocuous and then inadvertently revealed that him and his grandfather from another state just committed a straw or something. It's absurdly easy. 🤣
Click to expand...
Breathes heavy in atf Agent.... go on big boy tell me about more felonies
 
One of the worst articles I've read in a long time. Talk about confusing.

That said.

1. Glocks should not be "illegal" in MA. Frame game be damned. He could have done this with Sigs or Taurii and what? It's not as illegally????????

2. If you're not in prison or on parole, you should be able to own a firearm. See 2A

3. The dealer should have had a clue. While I think that anyone can do anything they want at any time and making dealers be squealers for the ATF is lame, the dealer SHOULD have seriously questioned a guy buying more than a few guns at once.
 
drgrant said:
Most of these people are stupid enough to take cash up front, all they need is one informant to get the target to take the money. I'm going to bet that there are probably multiple informants.

The bar for straws is so low that there are probably thousands of Americans that basically would qualify for a straw conviction without even knowing it. Paper gun crimes in this country are off the stack I bet I could interview a hundred pants shitters who jerk off over stupid f***ing preban mags and other garbage like that; and find out what felonies they've committed without knowing it. I would not be shocked if like one in every three gun owners has committed some kind of paper based state or federal felony. I'm sure you've probably been at a gun counter somewhere where some guy was talking to his buddy about something innocuous and then inadvertently revealed that him and his grandfather from another state just committed a straw or something. It's absurdly easy. 🤣
Click to expand...
Yeah, the one time I was in a shop buying a gun for my son for XMAS (he was just out of Army boot camp) I was looking for ATF agents in the bushes. I never mentioned my intent to gift the gun, but felt all felon for even thinking it.

Of course, paper gun laws only impact people who intend to obey them. Even those who intend to can get caught up in technicalities. Twice, MA cops have responded to my posts on my NH club’s website, saying they’re qualified for private transfers from anywhere with a letter from their chief. One I know for sure was not a sting, as he was a club member known to me. The other, who heard about the post from a club member, appeared legitimate, as he responded to my polite refusal and documentation of the law politely himself, saying he’d never bought a gun outside MA as a cop.
 
240Geezer said:
He bought a dozen. Then resold shortly thereafter. For profit.
Sounds like doing business to me.
Click to expand...
Depends. Many people here re-sell guns and sometimes make a profit. Yet they are not in the business of buying and selling. Is there a time frame that defines if you are or are not a business? ... like, if I sell a gun I purchased 5 years ago and one I purchased 2 months ago, would one be defined as selling for profit?

It all depends on the time frame, probably text messages he sent and other sh*t incriminating himself.

For this dude to get caught he had to be a special kind of stupid.

I wont waste my time reading the details, the Glock sale statement showed me this trial must have been full retard. Stupid all around.
 
240Geezer said:
He bought a dozen. Then resold shortly thereafter. For profit.
Sounds like doing business to me.
Click to expand...
They wouldn't have bagged him unless they already had evidence that he had buyers lined up, there's a great probability they put cash down too.
 
Broc said:
Depends. Many people here re-sell guns and sometimes make a profit. Yet they are not in the business of buying and selling. Is there a time frame that defines if you are or are not a business? ... like, if I sell a gun I purchased 5 years ago and one I purchased 2 months ago, would one be defined as selling for profit?

It all depends on the time frame, probably text messages he sent and other sh*t incriminating himself.

For this dude to get caught he had to be a special kind of stupid.

I wont waste my time reading the details, the Glock sale statement showed me this trial must have been full retard. Stupid all around.
Click to expand...
There likely wasn't much resembling a trial. Bench at best, but probably a plea deal. Feds rack up a bundle of charges and after fed math its this 18 month thing. Basically the other end of the deal is if he went to full trial and lost the feds would probably hit him with 5 to 10 years for the same thing. Maybe more if they padded on other shit. Most of these things start with him probably being accosted about multiple felonies and then basically the USA/AUSA will pick one low hanger and base a deal off of that so they can get their "W"...
 
drgrant said:
There likely wasn't much resembling a trial. Bench at best, but probably a plea deal. Feds rack up a bundle of charges and after fed math its this 18 month thing. Basically the other end of the deal is if he went to full trial and lost the feds would probably hit him with 5 to 10 years for the same thing. Maybe more if they padded on other shit. Most of these things start with him probably being accosted about multiple felonies and then basically the USA/AUSA will pick one low hanger and base a deal off of that so they can get their "W"...
Click to expand...

That is my guess as well.

I would love to see all the text messages and stupid sh*t this dude said.
 
drgrant said:
They wouldn't have bagged him unless they already had evidence that he had buyers lined up, there's a great probability they put cash down too.
Click to expand...
Most likely. That's 6k in gun purchases. I'm assuming a short time frame and the same FFL.
I'm not against it per se but then again I've never sold a gun and I have bought multiples.
 
Broc said:
That is my guess as well.

I would love to see all the text messages and stupid sh*t this dude said.
Click to expand...
It's probably in the full indictment which is easily trackable using a bunch of federal search engines for the cases but I'm too lazy to go excavating.
 
240Geezer said:
Most likely. That's 6k in gun purchases. I'm assuming a short time frame and the same FFL.
I'm not against it per se but then again I've never sold a gun and I have bought multiples.
Click to expand...
Presumably, any plea deal required him to rat out his buyers. I doubt the guy was scrupulous in selecting clientele. In MA, what laws does a buyer violate in such a transaction?
 
What a useless article by useless so called journalists. Was he selling to LTC holders or not? If yes, why wouldn't the buyers just buy the guns dorectly themselves instead of from this guy? If no, then he's truly fing retarded since the guns are registered in his name and only an idiot would want criminals buying stuff his name is attached to.
 
MaverickNH said:
Presumably, any plea deal required him to rat out his buyers. I doubt the guy was scrupulous in selecting clientele. In MA, what laws does a buyer violate in such a transaction?
Click to expand...
I'm going to bet that they already knew who the buyers were before they even launched this, either existing criminals or others they cut CI deals with to not prosecute.

Mass could arrest them for gun w/o FID/LTC etc blah blah if they ever had completed a sale. But mass is lazy and also these guys might have immunity otherwise. If they never fully commensurated the transaction there's nothing they can do. It's also possible that this even originated as a mass thing and the feds picked it up. Mass loves to palm off bullshit so someone else pays for it. 🤣
 
This article makes me want to go buy more Glocks.

I wonder if rhe ATF investigated him because he checked of “I am Hispanic” on the 4473. Racists!
 

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