ALBANY – A 22-year-old Kingston man pled guilty to conspiring with others to unlawfully obtain firearms from a licensed dealer by making false statements – “straw purchasing” of firearms – and to unlawfully transferring firearms to an out of-state-resident.
Rylan Peterson, a native of Kingston, then serving as a private first class in the Marine Corps at a base in North Carolina, admitted that he had a deal with Oryn McLeod for Peterson to acquire six semi-automatic handguns on behalf of McLeod and others.
Peterson then obtained the guns from North Carolina resident Mitchell Locke, who purchased them from a licensed dealer in North Carolina, falsely representing at the time that he was buying them for himself.
McLeod then paid Peterson for the guns, which Peterson transported to New York from North Carolina.
McCloud was arrested later for unlawful possession of the two handguns.
When sentenced in July, he faces up to 25 years in prison, a fine of up to $250.000 and five years of supervised release.
This case was prosecuted under the new criminal provisions of the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first federal statute specifically designed to target the unlawful trafficking and straw-purchasing of firearms.
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