NYPD: North Carolina man moved guns to NYC via 'iron pipeline'
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg at a Tuesday news conference where he said a North Carolina man facing weapons charges "had bags full of guns and made sales in broad daylight in the middle of bustling Manhattan." Credit: Jeff Bachner
NYPD detectives, sparked partly by complaints from residents of an upper Manhattan public housing area, arrested a North Carolina man Tuesday on weapons charges for trafficking guns through the notorious southern "iron pipeline" route, authorities said.
Tyreke Colon, 24, was taken into custody in a fast-moving undercover operation that involved a detective purchasing 36 guns, according to the NYPD. Colon had been openly selling firearms on the street that he had brought to the city from North Carolina, authorities said.
Colon traveled to the city either by car or bus, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
"The investigation ultimately caught Colon selling 36 guns to an undercover detective, beginning in February and through April of this year," Bragg said at a Tuesday news conference at NYPD headquarters. "Each time, Colon had bags full of guns and made sales in broad daylight in the middle of bustling Manhattan."
Undercover detectives netted 34 semi-automatic pistols and two revolvers, said Bragg, noting that when Colon was arrested Tuesday he allegedly was in possession of five semi-automatic pistols and an AR-15-style assault rifle with a magazine.
Officials said Colon was overheard on a wiretap instructing a friend how to get in touch with straw purchasers — people who can legally buy a gun that is later trafficked.
The impetus for the gun trafficking case came from intelligence developed by the NYPD. According to Chief Brian McGee, head of Manhattan north detectives, residents in the area of the Polo Ground Towers housing complex had complained to police about open guns sales in the area.
Police then used wiretaps and undercover techniques to build the case, officials noted. The weapons were moved on the "iron pipeline," the NYPD said. For years that's been the nickname for the network of traffickers bringing weapons into New York from southern states.
Colon faces charges of first-, second- and third-degree criminal sale of a firearm and first-, second- and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
According to Bragg, Colon was ordered held without bail after his arraignment Tuesday. In total, Colon charged the undercover detective $40,000 for the gun haul, noted Bragg.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said that so far this year her cops have seized over 3,000 illegal firearms in the flow of guns from southern states into New York City.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
