Gunrunners Sentenced For Trafficking 100s Of Georgia Firearms

ATLANTA — Three men were sentenced to federal prison time on firearms trafficking charges stemming from the Atlanta area, federal prosecutors said.

Considered a “prolific” gun trafficker by federal law enforcement authorities Warren Vernell Robertson III, 25, created an illicit weapons pipeline from Georgia to Baltimore delivering more than 100 guns and rifles with the help of two accomplices between 2018 and 2020, prosecutors said.

“Criminals who unlawfully traffic in firearms often only export crime and violence to other communities,” Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine said in a statement. “The impact of gun trafficking on our communities is especially acute now, given the uptick in violent crime occurring in many cities.”

Federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives led the investigation into Robertson and his crew and accused them of arming bad people.

“These defendants put guns in the hands of criminals,” said Arthur Peralta, ATF Atlanta Special Agent in Charge. “ATF will continue to focus its attention on anyone who chooses to arm criminals and willfully contribute to the violence harming our communities.”

Robertson, the East Point, GA man who had prior drug convictions, pleaded guilty to lying to a licensed firearms dealer and was sentenced to three years in prison followed by three years of probation.

Atlanta resident Asante Moore, 24, was sentenced to three months in prison followed by three years of probation after pleading guilty to unlawfully dealing in firearms.

Erik Alphonso Cohen, Jr., of Edgewood, MD, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm, after being arrested with a prior Maryland weapons conviction. Cohen, 23, was sentenced to a year and six months along with a subsequent three years of supervised release.

For nearly two years, Robertson paid four people to purchase firearms on his behalf, or used nearly a dozen false identities to buy them online, only to sell in Baltimore, federal prosecutors said.

Many of these guns were seized by law enforcement from individuals participating in criminal activities, authorities said. Federal ATF agents in Baltimore discovered about a dozen guns and a rifle inside a rental car Robertson had driven from Atlanta.

And Baltimore Police officers recovered a fully-loaded semiautomatic pistol from a drug dealer only weeks after Moore had purchased it for him.

According to prosecutors, Moore bought more than 20 guns on Robertson’s behalf in just the first quarter of 2020, including a purchase in March 2020 from a Jonesboro gun shop. Moore, authorities said, was accompanied by Cohen.