ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday a previously deported undocumented alien and a former school paraprofessional were sentenced from a case involving firearms trafficking.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, DeAndre Cannon bought nearly 48 firearms on behalf of Conroy Samuels, a convicted felon and undocumented alien who was living under the fake name of Justin Sheffield.
Samuels used the Sheffield alias after serving time in a U.S. prison and being deported after an attempted murder conviction.
Officials said the two men were caught after “fatally abandoning a dog in a hot car while straw-purchasing firearms.”
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According to USDOJ, between February and June 2022, Cannon bought dozens of firearms for Samuels.
To “perpetrate the firearms trafficking scheme with Samuels,” Cannon pretended to be a federally licensed firearms dealer in the metro Atlanta area, according to USDOJ.
Officials said Cannon sometimes bought as many as 17 firearms in a week using money given to him by Samuels. The weapons were then trafficked through the U.S., with the Justice Department saying two were found in Connecticut.
“At least two of the firearms that passed from Cannon to Samuels were recovered in Connecticut and linked to multiple shooting incidents in that state,” the USDOJ said.
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Department staff said the “crime spree” of Cannon and Samuels ended in mid-June 2022 after special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives saw Cannon get money from Samuels and then enter and leave a pawn shop in Jonesboro, Ga.
The temperature that day was higher than 95 degrees, and Cannon left a dog in the car for about an hour and a half while straw-purchasing weapons, USDOJ said.
Agents saw the dog suffering from extreme heat stress when they encountered Cannon later, and despite emergency treatment in Clayton County, USDOJ said the dog died.
U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said the charges against the two men were part of his office’s commitment to prosecuting criminals with a disregard for life.
“Firearms traffickers fuel gun violence in our communities placing citizens at risk of injury and death,” Buchanan said. “Our office is committed to partnering with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to pursue and prosecute criminals whose disregard for life contributes to the illegal flow of guns onto our streets.”
Samuels was sentenced on Aug. 2 to serve four years and nine months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He pled guilty in April to possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, conspiracy to make false statements to a federally licensed firearms dealer, and reentry after deportation, according to USDOJ records.
Cannon pled guilty on June 1 to conspiracy to make false statements to a federally licensed firearms dealer, and was sentenced Sept. 20 to four years and two months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, according to officials.
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