Accused Gun Traffickers Caught in Police Net

By ADAM ZAKI

Three of the four accused gun traffickers in the police department’s “Operation Tiger” net were arraigned on Thursday, as gun violence continued to rage throughout the city.

The fourth defendant awaited extradition from Virginia.

“This is the result of a joint investigation with NYPD with the clear goal of getting guns off of our streets that would have otherwise been illegally sold and used to create mayhem in the city of New York,” said Queens DA Melinda Katz in her announcement of the arrests. “With the recent increase in shootings, I am more determined than ever to stop gun violence.”

The latest results have shown shootings have doubled this year in the five boroughs, and what the police department has displayed as a big triumph is only a small step in what is seemingly a multi-state, big money, intricate stream of illegally sourced weapons from the South to the Northeast using a route called the Iron Pipeline.

Jessica Heyliger, Sharod King, and Mitchell Myree are the locals charged with multiple felonies, after they purchased guns from Laquan Benson in Virginia and with the intention of flipping them in the city.

All three faced long sentences if convicted —  King and Heyliger  a max of 25 years and  Myree a max of 15 years behind bars.

Undercover cops purchased 23 guns from the trio, all of which they believe were brought through the same route. This “Iron Pipeline” creates an extremely lucrative black market of high quality, legally purchased, easily obtainable firearms throughout the northeast where similar weapons can’t be bought legally.

The three only sold guns to the highest bidder, officials said, so investigators believe the guns they purchased were the only ones the three attempted to sell.

In a response to this case and the shootings across the city, the department has participated in multiple gun buyback programs in recent weeks. The program claims to have taken hundreds of guns off the streets, most recently collecting 33 guns in late September at a collection in Brooklyn.