ATLANTA — Four men, including an Ellenwood resident, have been sentenced to federal prison for international firearms trafficking.
Cemonte Deshon Wade, 23, was sentenced to three years, one month in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to conspiracy to make false statements to a federally licensed firearms dealer.
According to U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan, the charges and other information presented in court: Between May 2021 and continuing through early March 2022, Romeo Swofford directed other individuals, including co-defendants Emmanuel Barden and Wade, to obtain upwards of 160 handguns from federally licensed firearms dealers within the Atlanta area. Barden and Wade deceived the licensed dealers by falsely representing that they were buying guns for themselves. In truth, Swofford was the actual purchaser who paid for and took possession of the guns once the transactions were completed.
Swofford sought to acquire guns so he could profit from reselling them to convicted criminals and other people who would use, possess, or export them unlawfully. To facilitate these illegal gun sales, Swofford used hand tools to obliterate the serial numbers on dozens of the firearms. But nearly 20 of the guns Swofford sold were recovered from crime scenes in Canada where law enforcement authorities successfully restored the serial numbers Swofford attempted to remove.
On March 9, 2022, federal agents watched Swofford accompany Wade to two different Cobb County gun stores. Wade purchased three Glock semiautomatic pistols before relinquishing them to Swofford. Afterwards, Swofford and Wade met co-defendant Medford Layatte Daniels, Jr. outside a deli in the Edgewood neighborhood of Atlanta. Swofford then moved guns, drugs, and a scale into Daniels’s van. Both Swofford and Daniels were armed with…
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