A college student from the Bronx, New York was charged with over 300 gun-related charges. He was accused of trafficking guns into New York City and illegally selling weapons to an undercover police officer.
The Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced on Wednesday, November 16, that 23-year-old Shakor Rodriguez has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for trafficking 73 weapons and high-capacity magazines to the Bronx and Manhattan.
Shakor Rodriguez, 23, originally from the Bronx, was a student at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee. The Bronx District Attorney’s Office hit him with a total of 304 counts in the charges of criminal sale of a firearm and unlawful sale of a gun, from two indictments.
According to DA Clark, Rodriguez transported the weapons and high-capacity magazines into the city from the southern state. He would sometimes travel with the weapons stuffed in duffel bags via a bus from Tennessee.
The 40 high-capacity magazines he sold to the undercover officer include drum magazines, the same type used last week by Lashawn McNeil to shoot dead two New York City Police Department officers in Harlem.
Rodriguez sold 73 guns, 59 of them loaded, and more than 40 high-capacity magazines for 19 months between July 17, 2020 and December 22, 2021. The guns were sold for a hefty price, with the undercover officer reportedly paying between $1000 and $1500 for each firearm.
Prosecutors said that Rodriguez conducted most of the sales near his former Bronx home on Weeks Avenue. He also sold the weapons on Allen Street in Manhattan on several occasions.
School records show that Rodriguez was a good student, and he made the Dean’s list at Austin Peay State University in the Fall 2020 semester. Only students with a GPA of 3.5 and above make the Dean’s list.
Although the university is yet to comment on the ongoing investigation, they said Rodriguez was enrolled for the spring semester.
Police arrested Rodriguez on December 22, 2021, after the NYPD Firearms Investigation Unit and the Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau for the Bronx District Attorney’s Office conducted an investigation titled “Operation Overnight Express.”
Bronx District Attorney Clark said that the department worked well to intercept the weapons before they hit the streets of New York, adding that Bronx residents are dying every day from gun violence. His department does not tolerate any additional illegal guns in the community.
Police are still investigating the source of the weapons, with several of the guns being semi-automatic weapons and others considered assault weapons.
Keechant Sewell, the NYPD Commissioner, said that the NYPD was determined to tackle gun violence in the city by stopping traffickers. She said it was a priority for the department to prevent illegal guns from getting into New York City and to protect residents, children, and families from gun violence.
A Bronx resident who watched Rodriguez grow up said that he was always respectful and quiet and that she would not have thought of him as an arms dealer.
Rodriguez’s first court appearance was on December 23, where he was hit with 225 gun-related charges to which he pleaded not guilty. His second court appearance was on Monday before Supreme Court Justice Albert Lorenzo, where he was hit with another 79 counts. Rodriguez was sentenced to 10 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision for first-degree criminal sale of a firearm.