“Tyreke Colon is charged with more than 40 criminal counts after selling firearms in bulk to an undercover detective on three separate occasions in Harlem,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at a news conference Tuesday. “In total, Colon sold 36 guns worth over $40,000.”
Bragg described Colon’s gun trafficking as brazen, saying the 24-year-old was selling “bags full of guns and made the sales in broad daylight in the middle of bustling Manhattan.”
CNN reached out to Mildred Morillo, an attorney representing Colon, for comment but did not hear back at the time of publication.
Colon was arrested in Manhattan on May 19, where he was “in possession of five semi-automatic pistols and an AR-15-style assault rifle with a high-capacity magazine as he got off a bus from North Carolina,” according to a news release from the DA’s office.
The alleged sales to the undercover officer took place several times between February and April 2022, officials said.
“The charges are the result of a proactive investigation which employed courageous undercovers including undercover gun buys, court-authorized wiretaps and other investigative techniques,” Bragg announced.
Wiretaps and investigations revealed Colon came to Manhattan with the purpose of selling firearms in the city, and he allegedly recruited people to obtain gun permits to purchase the firearms he was trafficking into the city, the DA added.
“This case illustrates how the iron pipeline continues to pose a direct and immediate threat to the safety of all New Yorkers,” Bragg said in the news release.
“While we are fortunate to have some of the toughest gun laws in the country, they are far too often undermined by the easy availability of guns in many other states,” Bragg said.
