Georgia Man Charged in New York With Gun Trafficking

 A Georgia man, his wife and other family members have been charged with selling 155 guns, including an AR-15 assault rifle and other automatic weapons to an undercover police officer in Brooklyn.

New York authorities said Wednesday the sales took place over a seven-month period in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn.

According to New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, 32=year old Michael Brewer Quick of La Grange was one of six charged in a 558 count indictment with selling more than $126,000 worth of firearms either bought or stolen in Georgia.

One sale included 25 firearms in a suitcase for $20,000.

Authorities said that was the single largest illegal gun buy in New York Police Department history. 

Quick was arrested April 17 after selling 15 handguns worth $12,000 to the undercover officer on a street corner in Brooklyn.

In addition to the 151 handguns, authorities said, Quick and his co-defendants sold an AR-15 assault rifle and TEC-9 and MAC-11 automatic weapons.   The average price for a handgun sold by Quick was $800, nearly double the price of traffickers in previous investigations.

A $200 handgun bought in Georgia could be resold for $1,000 in Brooklyn, prosecutors said.

Bratton said the case is an example of what authorities in New York say is a constant effort to damper a firearms black market supplied by weapons acquired in the South and sold for many times the original price in New York.