A Maine man pleaded guilty in a Massachusetts federal court Monday to a conspiracy to straw purchase firearms in Maine to traffic them to Massachusetts.
Traveyon Richardson, 26, of Bangor, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to straw purchase firearms and one count of trafficking of firearms.
The straw purchase of a firearm is an illegal purchase where the actual buyer of the gun, who is unable to pass a federal background check or does not want their name associated with the transaction, uses a proxy buyer who can pass a background check to buy the firearm for them.
Richardson, along with his alleged co-conspirator in the straw purchase scheme, Breon Stroup, were indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2023.
In court documents, prosecutors accused Stroup of using Snapchat to ask Richardson to purchase two specific firearms for him in Maine in September 2022.
Prosecutors alleged that Stroup sent Richardson a Cash App money transfer the next day, and Richardson purchased the firearms online.
Richardson then is alleged to have picked up the firearms from the feral firearm licensed dealer and drove the firearms to Mass. in October 2022.
Prosecutors further alleged that approximately two weeks after the transaction, Richardson and Stroup had a phone conversation where Stroup assured Richardson that he had deleted his Snapchat and iCloud accounts.
The charges of conspiracy to straw purchase firearms and of firearms trafficking each provide for a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.
U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV scheduled Richardson’s sentencing for July 10, 2024.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="27107 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=27107">4 Comments
When contacted for comment, Mills and the House Speaker will probably claim he had a cultural misunderstanding and didn’t realize he was breaking any laws.
Throw the book at this low life. He gives law abiding gun owners a bad name. The left will use this type of behavior to take away more 2A rights. Make an example of this punk.
Not a Maine man. People like him don’t belong in Maine.
That is not Traveyon in the photograph. He has also been charged with felonies for domestic violence in Maine and has a past of other incidences.