As part of an enhanced federal effort to stem gun violence in Prince George’s County, 15 defendants were charged with federal firearms violations in two days, announced U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod Rosenstein.

Four additional defendants were charged in federal court as part of the initiative over the past two weeks. The cases, investigated by agents implementing the new “Operation Gunrunner” program and working with the Regional Anti-Gang Enforcement (RAGE) task force, are being prosecuted in federal court as part of a joint effort by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to deter illicit firearms trafficking in Prince George’s County.

Federal prosecutors in Greenbelt charged 57 defendants with federal firearms violations in 2006, which was a 27% increase over the previous year.  In 2007, we already have charged 46 defendants with federal firearms violations, reports Rosenstein.

“The unprecedented increase in prosecutions this year is attributable to our ‘Operation Gunrunner’ initiative to prosecute people who supply guns to criminals, and to exceptional work by the ATF ‘RAGE’ task force to catch illegal gun suppliers and keep guns out of the hands of criminals,” Rosenstein said. “These defendants all face lengthy sentences in federal prisons far from home, with no probation and no parole.”

Special Agent in Charge Gregory K. Gant stated, “These indictments and arrests demonstrate ATF’s commitment to aggressively fight violent crime, by stopping the illegal flow of guns and drugs into our communities. Through collaborative efforts like Maryland EXILE, Gunrunner, and the RAGE Task Force we are determined to increase the quality of life of our law abiding citizens who deserve to live free from fear of gangs and violence.”

Defendants charged under the initiative include:

– Timothy Stanley Johnson, 52 of Glenarden,  is charged by complaint with being a felon in possession and theft of a firearm which has moved in interstate commerce. Court documents allege that during his employment with a moving and storage company in March 2007, Johnson handled the shipment of property of an active duty member of the Kansas Air National Guard who was assigned to the Pentagon. Included in the property shipped from Kansas to the Washington, D.C. area were a Remington 870 shotgun, a Taurus .357 caliber revolver and a U.S.  Arms-AIG .22 semiautomatic rifle.  Johnson is alleged to have stolen the firearms in April 2007 and sold the revolver and shotgun to a heroin dealer. Agents seized the rifle from his residence on May 11, 2007.

– Alexander Rose, 47; Carlos Enrique Segura, 21; Jeremy Boyd Scales, 20; Antoine Rashad Thomas, 21; and Gerald Anthony Thomas, Jr., 43, all of Hyattsville, are charged by complaint with unlawfully dealing in firearms in connection with their sale of 11 firearms to an ATF informant from January to May 2007. The transactions took place in or near an apartment in Prince George’s County. Gerald Thomas and Scales are also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.  Gerald Thomas and Rose are also charged with unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm.

– Charges arising from the sale of two firearms and ammunition, as well as numerous sales of crack cocaine, to the ATF informant are filed by complaint against Tammy Lynn Alger, 40 of Hyattsville; Edwin Francisco Alvanez, 20 of Adelphi; and Luis Alfredo Gonzales, age 21, of Beltsville, Maryland. The transactions are alleged to have taken place from November 2006 to May 2007. Alger has been charged by separa