A 26-year-old Vallejo man was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for leading a crew that sold dangerous, high-powered weapons out of a Super 8 motel room on Solano Avenue, capping a seven-month federal investigation into a gun-trafficking operation. Zuryess Roberts was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez on Tuesday after a federal jury found him guilty in May 2025 of illegal gun trafficking and possessing a machine gun conversion device.
According to Action News Now, Roberts sold dangerous weapons on multiple separate occasions to a person he believed to be a violent criminal, receiving roughly $7,850 in the process. Federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office established that Roberts personally conducted or oversaw transactions selling 13 firearms while believing the buyer was a violent criminal, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Vallejo Police Department jointly conducted the investigation that led to his arrest.
A Motel Room as Trafficking Hub
Roberts's crew used the Super 8 motel at 2070 Solano Avenue as the hub of its criminal activity. The Justice Department identifies the motel as the location of the Roberts operation.
The case also involved a machine gun conversion device.
According to the ATF’s Part V report, more than half of the reviewed investigations—51.2%, or 221 of 432—involved trafficking in machinegun parts and/or conversion kits. According to a U.S. Department of Justice release dated Jan 11, 2024, ATF had recovered more than 31,000 machine gun conversion devices.
Investigation Ran Seven Months Before Arrests
The federal investigation into the Solano Avenue motel ring was conducted by the ATF's Oakland Field Office and ran for seven months before law enforcement executed federal arrests in February 2025, a week before February 27, the Justice Department reported. A week later, Operation Waterfront was a separate February 27 operation involving Brown Brotherhood affiliates that netted 21 firearms and more than 100,000 fentanyl pills, according to MPG.
Roberts and his co-defendants faced federal firearms cases. The investigation involved the ATF and Vallejo Police Department.
Four Co-Defendants Also Sentenced
Reports identified three co-defendants in the operation: Taezon Laurece Sanderson, Divaya Talley and Anderson Thurston.
Roberts's brush with federal firearms law did not begin in Vallejo. He previously faced federal firearm charges following a September 2018 arrest at age 18, which led to a 2019 federal indictment in Nevada for conspiracy and theft of firearms from a federal firearms licensee, according to court records published on CaseMine.
According to the ATF’s Part V report, theft is a significant avenue through which firearms are illegally diverted from lawful commerce and ownership into criminal hands.
A Familiar Hotspot Along Solano Avenue
The Solano Avenue corridor was the site of the Roberts motel case and a separate traffic stop. Hoodline previously reported on a traffic stop near the same area that escalated into a 15-mile chase and turned up illegal firearms. With Roberts and four co-defendants in the case sentenced to federal prison terms, questions remain about how machine gun conversion devices continue entering the local market — and whether code enforcement or nuisance abatement measures will ultimately target the property where this operation took place.
