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Monday, March 18, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Georgia Gun Runner Sentenced to 18 Years

BROOKLYN (CN) - The NYPD's largest undercover weapons buy earned a Georgia man 18 years in prison Thursday for funneling guns up I-95, also known as the "Iron Pipeline."

Michael Quick made 13 road trips from Georgia to Brooklyn between September 2013 and April 2014 to make more than $126,000 selling 151 guns, including an AR-15 assault rifle, a MAC-11 subcompact machine pistol, two TEC-9 semiautomatic pistols, and a host of loaded pistols and revolvers.

One shipment of 25 guns sold to an undercover officer represents the largest single weapons buy in the New York City Police Department's history, said Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson.

"This harsh prison sentence reflects our determination to bring to justice out-of-state firearms traffickers who use lax gun laws down south to flood our city with guns," Thompson said. "We will continue to go after these merchants of death no matter where they live."

Quick, of LaGrange, Ga., capitalized on lenient laws in Georgia to buy guns for as little as $200, drove them up the interstate, and resold them in Brooklyn for as much as $1,000, according to law enforcement. Some of the guns were bought in stores and others were stolen.

The interstate is known as the Iron Pipeline because it connects southern states with looser gun laws to northern states with stricter gun laws, like New York and New Jersey.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun handed down the sentence, which includes five years of post-release supervision, after Quick pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of first-degree criminal sale of a firearm and one count of first-degree criminal possession of a weapon. As part of his plea deal, Quick waived his right to appeal.

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