A seven month long, multi-state investigation helped officers get more than 100 guns off the streets. Marc Santia reports.
Three members of the same family were arrested and face hundreds of counts of gun trafficking after a major bust in Queens turned up more than 100 illegal firearms, including assault weapons, according to the district attorney.
A seven-month investigation led by the NYPD Firearms Investigation Unit and the Queens DA’s office netted 109 guns in all, including what Captain Jeffrey Heilig said were “76 nine-millimeters, two of which are ghost guns; 10 forty-calibers; two 45-calibers, two 380-calibers, 16 rifles and three shotguns.”
The suspects — Ahmed “Taju” Mutalib, Abdul Haruna, and Murtala Haruna, all of whom are cousins — were indicted by a grand jury on 575 counts, charging them with criminal sale of a firearm, weapon possession, conspiracy and money laundering.
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Police were tipped off to the alleged trafficking through a confidential tip in March, Katz said. In addition to the 20 assault weapons, there were 139 high-capacity magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
The investigation included a series of undercover buys in an Astoria parking lot and a wiretap on the suspects’ phones, DA Melinda Katz said. One undercover NYPD cop purchased 96 of the guns in controlled buys. Once law enforcement found out the alleged gun suppliers might expand their business overseas, they immediately brought the case to a close and made arrests.
Now the weapons are in the hands of the NYPD instead of on the street, where the alleged sellers thought they were heading.
“All these deadly weapons, they all come from one source: Three defendants that we now have in custody. They have been indicted,” Katz said. “This much lethal firepower in the hands of people on the street — I can’t even imagine how many lives were saved with this takedown.”
Several of the buys went down in the same Astoria parking lot where the undercover agent “put himself in danger” to make the purchases, Katz said.
The case took investigators from Cincinnati, Ohio, to New Jersey, and ultimately New York.
“The detectives witnessed two of the defendants coming out of a townhouse in Cincinnati, Ohio, carrying large boxes to a U-Haul truck. The activity corresponded directly to subsequent phone calls about transporting these guns,” the DA said.
The NYPD caught up to the suspects in Staten Island on Sept. 8, after 32-year-old Mutalib and 30-year-old Murtala Haruna were tracked by police driving a rented vehicle with a Florida license plate through New Jersey to New York. A search warrant was executed on the vehicle, which resulted in the arrest of those two suspects. Abdul Haruna, 27, was arrested on Nov. 2.
“A case of this magnitude sends a message to any would be gun trafficker that the NYPD is watching and there is no limit to the span of our investigation,” said Capt. Heilig.
Attorney information for the three men was not immediately available. If convicted the trio could spend up to 25 years in prison. Their next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 9.
“We have seen shootings in 2023 decline 28% in the city and 34% in Queens. That is of little comfort, however, to the more than 1,000 victims of shootings across the city this year,” Katz said in a press released. “Through investigations, arrests and prosecutions, we will continue to do everything we can to shut the Iron Pipeline down once and for all.”
