Chicago man gets 5+ years for illegally selling guns

A Chicago man was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison Thursday for illegally selling guns.

Warren Gates, 49, received the 63 month sentence after pleading guilty last summer to illegally possessing and trafficking two dozen handguns.

The Chicago Sun Times reports that Gates bought 17 of the guns from codefendants who stole 111 handguns from a south side Chicago rail yard on April 12, 2015. At the time of his arrest, Gates had already sold 11 of the firearms for profit.

The firearms were stolen from a cargo train parked overnight while on a journey from a New Hampshire Ruger factory to Spokane. Seventy of the 111 firearms were .22-caliber Ruger pistols.

According to the Chicago Sun Times, codefendant Alexander Peebles reportedly participated in the robbery with nine other people and then sold the guns to Gates, who has been convicted numerous times for illegally selling firearms and flagged as a prohibited possessor.

Law enforcement officers have recovered 16 of the 111 stolen firearms at crime scenes and various other locations, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

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