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A former Columbus police officer illegally sold 501 guns last year — including one that was found with two Somali men now charged in a terrorist plot in Canada.
Of the other guns that were sold, one was used in a Columbus homicide. Another was traced to a New York City shooting. One was connected to a man charged with assaulting a Maryland police officer.
And the list goes on.
Mark Andrew Nelson, 35, of 12850 Blamer Rd., N.W., Johnstown, has put more guns on the streets than anyone arrested in Ohio in at least three decades, said Pat Berarducci, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
In a plea deal, Nelson admitted in U.S. District Court in Columbus yesterday to one count of making false statements to buy a gun. He’s being held in the Franklin County jail pending sentencing.
ATF agents were investigating Nelson last August when word came that two men had just been caught carrying loaded guns into Canada. Mohammed Dirie, 23, and Yasim Abdi Mohamed, 25, said they bought the three guns from a drug addict in Columbus.
Canadian authorities announced this past June that Dirie and Mohamed were part of a terrorist conspiracy to attack Parliament and other places in Canada.
Agents here determined that one gun came from Nelson and continue to investigate the origins of the other two guns.
Nelson, who joined the Columbus Police Division in late 1997, left because of a spinal disability in June 2005. He was off work and on medical leave in November 2004 when he was charged with felonious assault in a road-rage incident. Authorities say he hit another motorist in the head with a metal flashlight.
Nelson pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge from the incident, but he had been indicted on a felony charge when he was buying and selling guns, making it illegal for him to buy or sell.
During much of 2005, he made his living selling guns at area gun shows and out of his car, Squires said.
He knew he was selling to criminals, said Wayne Dixie, the resident agent in charge of the Columbus ATF office. When agents detained Nelson during an undercover buy, Nelson was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying two loaded guns.
One gun traced to Nelson was used in a Christmas Eve shootout on the West Side last year, the ATF said. Marques Sawyer shot into the home of Alex Byrd, critically wounding Byrd, police said. Sawyer was killed by return fire. Police wouldn’t say who had the gun that reportedly came from Nelson because the case remains under investigation.
Another gun traced to Nelson was found in the Essex County jail in New Jersey, and another on a street corner in Minneapolis, the ATF said. Agents and police have taken 151 guns, handguns, semi-automatic rifles and machine guns off the street that they attribute to Nelson. They say it will take years to find 350 others.
Dixie said an agent began investigating when he saw in federally mandated records that licensed gun dealer Robert L. Cook, of Westerville, was repeatedly selling guns in batches, in January 2005. The buyers listed were Nelson’s wife, Phaedra; his father-in-law, James Robert Crook of Columbus; and Nelson’s brother, Ricky, also of Columbus. Because Nelson was prohibited from buying guns, the relatives, authorities say, bought them for him.
Over the year, Cook sold Nelson more than 300 guns in his relatives’ names. The other people, he said, never handled the guns, though they signed forms saying they were the buyers.
Ricky and Phaedra Nelson and Crook all pleaded guilty this week to one count each of making a false statement to acquire a firearm. Cook pleaded guilty to one count of selling a firearm to a prohibited person.
All face a maximum of 10 years in prison, but Nelson is expected to see the most prison time.
After buying the guns, Nelson took them off the paper trail by selling them at gun shows.
Licensed dealers are required to file paperwork and do computer checks, but unlicensed sellers at gun shows are not required to file paperwork with the ATF. At gun shows, Nelson made contacts with crooks who wanted to buy guns anonymously, the ATF said.
After he was caught, Nelson agreed to help investigators trace guns he’d sold.
Source: Columbus Dispatch, Aug 11, 2006
