A Chicago man has been found guilty by a federal jury of trafficking multiple rifles, including some AR-15 semiautomatic rifles, in the city. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois, Cedric Curtis, 32, was involved in the sale of firearms over 2018 and 2019, transactions that he was unaware involved a cooperating witness with federal law enforcement.
Curtis, who had a prior felony conviction making it illegal for him to possess firearms, faced charges related to dealing firearms without a license and unlawful possession of those firearms, the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois explained, adding that Curtis was not a licensed firearms dealer, as one might assume given the severity of the charges and his audacity the unlawful transaction of such firepower within a city already wracked by gun violence. U.S. District Judge Jorge L. Alonso has scheduled sentencing for October 1, confirming the jury's decision on the one count of dealing firearms without a license and six counts of unlawful possession.
The case against Curtis was fortified by the collective efforts of the FBI's Chicago Field Office and the Chicago Police Department, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Shawn D. McCarthy and Margaret A. Steindorf representing the prosecution. The conviction underscores the persistent battle against gun trafficking in Chicago, part of the broader Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative to stem violent crime.
A related case saw Deonta Moore, 31, also of Chicago and a co-defendant, pleading guilty to illegal firearm possession. Moore was sentenced to a term of three years and a month in federal prison, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
