Selling guns to people who shouldn’t have them
Gun sales illegal on both the seller and buyer ends got a Miami man convicted in federal court this week.
Johnny Battle, 30, is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 27 after a jury found him guilty of dealing firearms without a license and possessing a machine gun.
“In total, law enforcement agents have identified the purchase of at least 170 guns and have recovered many of them across the United States, including in New York City, Boston, and overseas,” the U.S. Department of Justice said.
At trial, prosecutors said the Battle ran his gun business since 2017, selling guns and “Glock Switch” machine gun conversion devices sans background checks. He didn’t need to run background checks because he knew his customers were convicted felons who couldn’t legally own guns or drug dealers who would use the guns to back up their own illegal business.
Battle bartered for those light on cash, trading drugs for guns.
Miami police, the Broward Sheriff’s Office, Miami-Dade police, the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Miami Field Office, Homeland Security Investigations-Miami and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Department of Commerce investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Hayden O’Byrne and Ignacio J. Vázquez Jr. handled the prosecution with Assistant U.S. Attorney Marx Calderon handling asset forfeiture.
