(GunReports.com) — The eighth member of an illegal gun trafficking ring that trafficked over 65 firearms from Atlanta, Ga., to the San Francisco Bay Area has been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison.
The group bought, shipped then resold the guns from April through June of 2009. Several of these guns were recovered from crime scenes in San Francisco and Oakland.
Jonathan Rice, 26, of Vallejo, Calif., was sentenced Aug. 5, by United States District Judge Honorable Jeffrey S. White in the Northern Judicial District of California for receiving firearms in California that had been unlawfully shipped from Georgia. He was sentenced to 27 months for his part in the illegal operation.
Rice is the last of the Bay Area defendants of this illegal firearms trafficking ring to be sentenced. On July 1, Aurelio Rodriguez was sentenced to 37 months in prison and on July 22, Willie Earnest was sentenced to 15 months in prison and Nkwelle Pendar was sentenced to 60 months of prison.
All previously pleaded guilty in federal court and admitted that they each received firearms from Jeffrey Colon Moore, a Georgia resident who had shipped the firearms via United Parcel Services to the San Francisco Bay Area. Earnest and Pendar admitted that they sent payments to Moore in Georgia by way of Western Union and sold and delivered those same firearms on the black market.
