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Ex-con Corey Jenkins Jr., 31, and Savion Clyburn, 21, both of Paterson, and Richard Mullane, 27, of Bayonne, were among the members of the D.I.Y. network that operated largely in both cities, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
They were targeted in an investigation in which the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) worked closely with various state and local law enforcement agencies, he said.
Do-it-yourself ghost guns -- made from kits of parts and tools -- aren't stamped with serial numbers registered to a federally licensed manufacturer. This allows criminals to bypass background checks while making it all but impossible to trace the weapons to any individual.
Law enforcement conducted several undercover buys that produced more than a dozen of the illegal weapons, the U.S. attorney said.
More were collected during a subsequent series of raids -- including a privately-made firearm (PMF) that Jenkins threw out a window as they were closing in, Sellinger said.
Mullane, meanwhile, was also caught with more than 600 images of child pornography, he said.
All three men took deals from the government rather than risk the potential outcome of a trial, pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in Camden to conspiring to engage in unlicensed dealing of firearms and selling unlicensed guns.
Jenkins also pleaded guilty to possession of ammunition by a convicted felon.
Mullane also pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography, Sellinger said in announcing the sentences on Monday, June 10:
- Corey Jenkins Jr., 31, must serve at least six years of an 87-month sentence before he can be released;
- Richard Mullane, 27, must serve at least five years of a 72-month sentence before he'll be eligible for release;
- Savion Clyburn, 21, must serve a little over four years of a 60-month term before he'll be eligible.
The 85% minimums must be served out because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
U.S. District Judge Karen M. Williams also sentenced Mullane to five years of supervised release and the other two to three years each, Sellinger said.
Working closely with the ATF, he said, were postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark, members of the Passaic County sheriff's and prosecutor's offices and police from Passaic and Paterson.
Sellinger also thanked police from Elizabeth, Plainfield, Hillside, Bayonne and East Orange, along with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the New Jersey State Police, the Hudson County Prosecutorβs Office and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Belgiovine of his Criminal Division in Trenton secured the pleas and sentences, Sellinger said.
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