The Department of Justice says a Tulsa man has been for stealing assault-style weapons and trading them for cash and methamphetamine.
Anthony Ronnie Martinez, 45, pleaded guilty in January and sentenced Wednesday to more than five years in federal prison. Charges he faced were stealing and unlawfully carrying away firearms from a licensed dealer and for possessing, receiving, concealing, storing, bartering, selling, and disposing of stolen firearms and ammunition.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Martinez and his girlfriend, Shannon Lee Fryman, backed a vehicle into a Tulsa gun store and stole 11 firearms, including assault rifles, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, then fled the premises. Then, over the next three days, the two traded multiple firearms for cash and meth, a release says.
According to a previous story by 2 Works for You, the duo plowed a vehicle into the front of the firearms store.
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“Federal and local authorities worked together to track down Martinez and Fryman, following their brazen late-night raid of a federal firearms licensee’s store,” U.S. Attorney Trent Shores said. “The Tulsa and Broken Arrow Police Departments, along with the ATF, really did amazing work on this investigation in identifying and finding the suspects as well as the stolen guns. Their diligence, combined with a focused federal prosecutor, secured this conviction and sentence.”
U.S. District Judge John Dowdell sentenced Martinez to 63 months in prison and ordered Martinez and Fryman to pay restitution in the amount of $50,534 for the damage caused during the robbery. He will also be required to serve three years of supervised release.
This prosecution was part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods and resulted from an investigation conducted by the Tulsa and Broken Arrow Police Departments and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
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