MEMPHIS, TENN –-(Ammoland.com)- Prosecutors have sentenced two men who allegedly stole 366 guns from a United Parcel Services facility in Memphis, Tennessee a year ago to nine years in federal prison.
Roland Jackson, 24-years-old, and Taveyon Turnbo, 18-years-old, of Chicago both plead guilty to transporting and possessing the stolen firearms. Prosecutors also charged Jackson with being a felon in possession of a gun. Jackson ultimately pleaded guilty to that charge as well.
As reported by AmmoLand, On Sept. 28, 2018, the UPS facility in Memphis received a shipment of 16 pallets from the Ruger factory located in North Carolina. The shipment was due to leave the Memphis facility on Sept. 30 for Dallas, Texas.
In the early morning of Sept. 30, two men broke into the UPS facility and loaded three of the 16 pallets into a U-Haul truck. The thieves escaped into the night with 366 firearms that were chambered in .22LR and .380 ACP. The ATF asked the public for help in recovering the firearms and offered a $5,000 reward for information about the theft.
Two days later someone called the police in the Chicago suburb of Midlothian, Illinois. The caller spotted suspicious activities around U-Haul truck in a Walgreens store parking lot and was concerned. When police approached the vehicle, Jackson and Turnbo refused to unlock the doors or roll down the windows. The police eventually smashed the passenger window next to Turnbo and drew their guns on the suspicious men.
Both men jumped out of the U-Haul truck and ran from the scene through a connecting neighborhood. The police pursued the two suspects and were able to take Turnbo into custody a couple of hours later. Police were able to apprehend the other suspect a day later.
Officers stayed at the Walgreens parking lot to investigate the U-Haul as other officers chased the suspects as they fled the scene. When the officers opened the back of the U-Haul, they were astonished to find 364 of the stolen firearms from the Memphis UPS heist. Turnbo later told police that he had sold the other two guns for $400.
Law enforcement believes that Turnbo and Jackson were transporting the gun to Chicago. According to prosecutors, the two men had plans of selling the firearms on the streets of Chicago.
Although Turnbo doesn’t have a criminal history, Jackson has an extensive history with law enforcement. The courts have convicted him of residential burglary, theft, retail theft, and criminal damage to property. At the time of his arrest, he was facing three additional felony cases for retail theft.
The Memphis, TN UPS facility itself has a history of theft. In 2017, 24 guns were stolen from the same facility on their way to a gun store in Louisiana. In addition to guns, other shipments have gone missing from the same facility leading law enforcement to call on UPS to better police itself.
In addition to the nine years of federal prison time that the court sentenced the men to serve for their crimes, the court also ordered the men to be supervised for three years following their release from prison.
UPS did not return AmmoLand’s request for comment.
About John Crump
John is an NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is Virginia State Director for Gun Owners of America. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.
Steal 366 firearms and you get nine years, put a grip on a pistol you own and you get ten! What a country!
They should have been given consecutive sentences for each gun stolen + connectives for the felon.
Only nine years….
You have to love it when the criminal is the one above all the gun laws. The more they steal, the more they rob and kill, the more the law abiding citizen will have to shoulder it until all we got are rocks to throw because you can bet at this point they’ve already taken all our slings!
For those that wonder how criminals get their hands on guns, read the article. The black market is alive and well. Of course I’m sure they would have transferred the stolen weapons through a FFL with a ‘universal background check’. Just kidding about the FFL.
Far as I know, theft of ONE firearm carries at least a five year jack. These punks steal 360 or so, got nine years. that’s ten days per gun. And all the dimwits can do is holler for more gun laws and harsher penalties for breaking the many stupid laws restricting them. And here the dirtbags get TEN DAYS PER GUN they stole, in an intertate heist? Go find the judge that laid down that sentence and take away his armed guards and security, and stop screening for guns on everyone that enters his courtroom. This guy needs sanctioned. Big… Read more »
This brings up the interesting point: UPS ships guns everywhere, including to law enforcement. So, if Liberal politicians want to keep us from having certain firearms it would appear that could be defeated by simply stealing from UPS or other common carriers! That, along with the fact that modern CNC machines can crank out virtually any firearms you can think of are two possibilities Liberals never considered, I guess. OR, more likely, they just don’t care!
It is a known fact that there is an occasion when a worker gets “sticky fingers” whether they work at UPS, FedEx or the post office. This is not that unusual for this to happen, in fact FEdEx broke up a ring of these thieves a few years back. People weren’t getting the items they ordered and it was traced back to these perps. I don’t know but they were most likely democrats.
Exactly! They don’t hesitate to say ” white male” but they are scared to say “Two young black boys “…..SMDH
Well guess I won’t be using UPS anymore, if they hire convicted felons to handle their mail/packages. These theiving bastards should have gotten at least 20 yrs.