CONCORD, NH – A side effect of the ongoing opioid crisis is the increased number of incidents where individuals from New Hampshire trade guns with drug dealers to obtain drugs or settle a debt, according to U.S. Attorney Scott W. Murray.
Drug traffickers actively soliciting customers to obtain guns for them has resulted in Murray launching public service announcements (PSAs) to educate the public about the consequences of buying guns for someone other than themselves, particularly drug dealers and convicted felons. It can result in a federal prison sentence. The campaign hashtag is #CrimeFreeNH.
“Drug trafficking and violent crime jeopardize the safety and security of the citizens of New Hampshire,“ Murray said. “Armed drug dealers are a menace to everyone. Law enforcement officers are working to protect the community each day. With these public service announcements, we are seeking to raise awareness about these crimes and to solicit the public’s assistance in helping us to make the Granite State safer. A fully informed public is a powerful deterrent against the harm caused by drug traffickers.”
The public service announcements, 6 to 60 seconds long, serve to increase awareness about the dangers and consequences of exchanging guns for drugs; educate and warn people about criminal consequences of buying a gun for someone you don’t know or someone who cannot legally possess a gun; addresses the opioid crisis in the state; educate the public about the damage drug cartels are doing to the state; send a message to armed drug dealers that they are the number one prosecution priority for the U.S. Attorney.
In the past year, federal prosecutors have obtained convictions in 10 cases involving armed drug dealers resulting in sentences of from five years to more than 13 years.
Manchester, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, has seen the dangerous results of drug-related violence. In March 2019, three people died during a 14-hour stand-off at the Quality Inn where law enforcement officers, including DEA agents, exchanged gunfire with a drug dealer.
Oftentimes, when a gun is bought in NH for a drug trafficker, it ends up in Massachusetts, according to Murray.
In one such case from 2017, police recovered a gun after a 15-year-old Lawrence, Mass., teen shot himself in the hand.
Yoelfi Feliz, then 21, of Lawrence, Mass., was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison in connection with that case for conspiring with another individual to purchase eight firearms from Next Level Firearms in Salem. The co-conspirator claimed he started purchasing firearms for Feliz because he owed Feliz money for heroin that Feliz had “fronted” him. Feliz asked him to buy firearms as a way to pay off the $2,000 debt.
To get money to buy drugs, drug addicts frequently commit residential burglaries stealing jewelry, money and guns, according to Murray, who was a Merrimack County prosecutor for many years. Those guns also often turn up in the Bay State after being traded for drugs.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office works with ATF to prosecute illegal gun purchase cases which frequently involve people recruited to buy guns for others, called straw purchasers.
For more information about the campaign and to see the public service announcements, visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-
