November 14, 2002 BY JANET RAUSA FULLER STAFF REPORTER
Taking just one hour to deliberate, a federal jury on Wednesday convicted a Chicago man and a Mississippi gun dealer in a gun-running operation that authorities say supplied gang members here with weapons.
Charles Yarbor, 24, a member of the Gangster Disciples, and Jimmy D. Wren, 57, of Nettleton, Miss., were each found guilty of one count of conspiracy to violate federal firearms laws. They could face a maximum of five years in prison when sentenced in February.
"This is a significant case, first because of the amount of guns trafficked to Chicago, but also because of how they were brought here and by whom. These are hardened criminals," Assistant U.S. Attorney T. Markus Funk said.
The operation, which ran from 1994 to 1997, involved Yarbor and co-defendants Louis Rowe and Julius Sangster, who are both members of the Vice Lords gang.
The men traveled to Grenada, Miss., where they sold crack cocaine and used the profits to buy more than 80 firearms, the bulk of which Wren sold out of his mobile sporting goods store.
The men used aliases to buy the guns, ranging from SKS assault rifles to 9mm pistols, but they also relied heavily on four women acting as so-called straw purchasers. Three of the women testified at the weeklong trial.
Prosecutors said a gun used in a murder in Florida and 28 more recovered in Chicago have been traced back to the weapons ring.
Sangster is in federal custody and is cooperating with authorities. Rowe is a fugitive.
Chicago man convicted in gun-running operation