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Posted on 02/18/2005 9:47:38 AM PST by Coleus
Teacher, cop charged with gun trafficking
Friday, February 18, 2005
NEWARK - A schoolteacher and his wife, who is a police officer, were arrested Thursday as part of an undercover operation to crack a gun trafficking ring that included the teacher's brother-in-law, authorities said.
Five rifles were sold for $9,200 over the course of the investigation, according to court papers.
FBI agents found a 9mm handgun in the coat pocket of the teacher, William Mayes, as he was preparing to leave home for his ninth-grade class at Success Academy, part of West Side High School in Newark, Special Agent Steve Kodak said.
Mayes, 41, and his wife, Irvington police Officer Cynthia Owens-Mayes, 27, were arrested at their Irvington home. Also arrested was Jed Smurda, 43, of Bethlehem, Pa., a painter and landscaper who had been an Army police officer and federal police officer at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa., authorities said.
"It is a sad day when we arrest individuals who hold positions of public trust and are responsible for the education of our children with grave crimes such as these," said Joseph Billy Jr., the special agent in charge of the FBI's New Jersey operations.
The Newark school district suspended Mayes with pay, said Carol Patterson, director of community relations. If indicted, his pay could be halted, depending on the charges, she said. Mayes has taught in the district since 1993, she said.
Owens-Mayes, who joined the Irvington department in December 2002, was suspended without pay, Chief Michael Chase said.
William Mayes and Smurda face federal charges of conspiracy and selling firearms without a license. Owens-Mayes faces 14 state charges, including illegally possessing an assault rifle and official misconduct.
Anyone know what kind of "rifles." Maybe highly engraved custom fitted? I'll bet!
They weren't Yugo SKSs that is for sure.
These are only "grave crimes" because of draconian and unconstitutional gun laws. Next, please.
Highly customized M1A's?
It really is a sad day when someone is arrested for exercising their natural rights. When was public trust violated? The "grave crime" was committed by JBT Joe Billy Jr., not the schoolteacher or his wife.
To me, that is the sensible approach.
"Anyone know what kind of "rifles." Maybe highly engraved custom fitted? I'll bet!"
I heard he gets them from vans in hotel parking lots !!
/grin
The fact that guns caused honorable people such as cops and schoolteachers to go bad shows just how evil guns are, and why they should be even more strictly prohibited, and with tougher sentences and even more intrusive enforcement than they already are. /drug warrior "thinking"
Just how many guns can you sell without getting charged with this offense?
They do not offer the same leniency to civilians, do they?
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Could also be decent FALs, cheap AUGs, MIAs or ARs with optics and other gadgets. Many bolt actions fetch those kinds of prices too.
There is a magic number, nobody knows it except for the ATF. If you go over it the FBI and ATF will kick down your door, shoot your dog and burn you and your family alive.
I just can't wrap my brain around this one. Is there a legal defense fund we can contribute to? Someone in the government needs a trip to their own Club Fed on this one...
Guess I better watch out. I have over one.
Undercover agents bought the ''Czech version of the AK-47'' from Mayes in New Jersey, where it's illegal to own assault rifles, authorities said.
Mayes sold six Izhmash Saiga 7.62x39mm rifles to an undercover agent and a cooperating witness during four transactions between Nov. 4 and Jan. 7, agents said.
The agent last spoke to Mayes on Saturday about buying more weapons, and Mayes said their next transaction ''was still a go,'' according to court records.
Agents said Smurda bought five rifles legally from a gun dealer in Breinigsville and illegally transported them to Irvington, where Mayes resold them for at least $1,600 apiece and as much as $2,000.
During the transactions, Mayes told the informant that he could get any type of weapon he wanted from his supplier, who was about to marry his sister, according to court records.
''You know you are selling them illegally if you purchased them for $350 in Pennsylvania and sell them for $2,000 in New Jersey,'' said Steve Kodak, an FBI special agent in New Jersey.
Mitchell Mausers perhaps?
Sounds crappy, kind of like entrapment. On the other hand he probably knew it was illegal.
For the record I don't believe in gun laws of any kind, but then again I don't carry a pistol here in NY State because I don't have the permit and know it's illegal.
I have always said there were enough laws on guns if we just prosecuted the laws we have. Now I am not familiar with this case , but if these people broke the law and one of them being a police officer should have known the law , why are we standing up for them?
So making a profit is illegal, apparently. Steve Kodak, you are the picture of FedGov arrogance.
If that FBI agent wants to see a truly "Sad Day" and "Grave Crimes" he should sit in a classroom once and see what they teach the children!
Sounds like they are being prosecuted under a Law that infringes that Right. Good enough for me. IM not so HO, there isn't a gun law on the books that passes a Constitutional smell test.
No, he's probably exploiting the gun show "loophole"! ;-)
Because, as far as we can tell from one short news item, they didn't do anything wrong. Selling 5 is no big deal. If they were AWs, the only "wrongdoing" involved harmless cosmetics. That a cop and a teacher were involved can indicate that they didn't think anything was wrong with it.
The high markup makes me recall a case in NY:
Police got odd reports of a few ethnically identifiable folks buying large quantities of baby formula in upper NY. They'd go into grocery stores, buy up ALL the formula, pay cash, and leave. It was obvious they weren't from around there, and obvious they weren't merely feeding their babies. Concerned that there might be some new drug scheme afoot, police mounted an investigation and caught the nefarious fellows. After much interrogation, the truth came out: the "gang" had simply found a price discrepancy for the product in one part of the state vs. another, and was simply buying it cheaply elsewhere in the state and selling it for a profit in NY City.
So the question remains: what, really, were the teacher & cop doing wrong? did it really merit jail time?
None, the law is somewhat vague, but it's not the number you sell, but rather if you are selling them primarily to make money, as opposed to moving guns out of your private collection so you can buy some different ones. If it was numbers, my brother in law would be doing hard time in the federal pen. He never keeps 'em very long, and he's always got a safe full. (He does have a 'Core group' which move much more slowly, that includes his Cowboy Action guns, and his scoped sniper hunting rifles.)
Kind of? It is entrapment. Unless he approached them offering to sell them guns.
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