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Edwin Gaines, 59, was among dozens of suspects busted in a state takedown of gun- and drug-running gang members last year.
The former Jersey City ex-con sold a .22-caliber Ruger rifle and the magazine to a buyer using money provided by law enforcement "in a video- and audio-recorded transaction in the basement of a Trenton residence," U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Gaines’s case went federal, leading to Thursday’s guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Trenton via video conference. U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan scheduled sentencing for Nov. 24.
Carpenito credited special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Newark Division’s Trenton Field Office, and detectives from the New Jersey State Police with the investigation leading to the plea, secured by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Marita Navarro of his Criminal Division in Trenton.
Gaines, formerly of Jersey City, was one of 28 people arrested last August in a pair of takedowns coordinated by State Police dubbed “Operation West End” in Trenton and “Operation 4K Boyz” in Paterson.
A brand of fentanyl-laced heroin seized from crime rings in both cities was responsible for 57 overdoses – 26 of which were fatal, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said at the time.
A total of 22 guns, 18 large-capacity magazine, 11,000 doses of heroin and fentanyl, more than a pound and a half of cocaine and $52,000 in drug cash was seized, Grewal said.
Gaines pleaded guilty to felony murder in 1982 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, nearly 20 of which he served, records show.
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