OAKLAND — Four people are facing federal charges of conspiring to illegally sell firearms in the Bay Area, including one gun that was seized in a homicide investigation, court records show.
Glen Phason, Dung Dinh, George Abston, and Aaron Harrison have been charged with conspiracy and dealing firearms without a license, crimes that carry up to five and 10 years in federal prison respectively, court records show. The case was filed in late August after an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
In a criminal complaint, the ATF describes Abston and Harrison as straw purchasers who would buy guns in Texas — where firearm sales restrictions are looser — and ship them back to California, where Phason and Dinh allegedly sold them to others.
The ATF used confidential informants to buy guns from Phason and Dinh, including on instance in February where Dinh allegedly sold an informant an AR-style rifle for $1,200, authorities said.
One of the ATF’s informants was a person with more than 40 prior arrests for everything from assault with a firearm and false imprisonment to bribing a witness, the complaint says.
Eight of the guns bought in Texas by Abston and Harrison were recovered at Bay Area crime scenes, including a shooting in San Francisco that left one person dead and four injured, the complaint says.
The next court date has been set for Oct. 27.
Source: www.mercurynews.com