Gun control activist supplies illegal weapons to gang

[maluckey]

AP: LOS ANGELES ? A former gang member who founded an anti-violence group called No Guns has pleaded no contest to federal weapons charges.

Hector "Big Weasel" Marroquin, 51, and co-defendant Sylvia Arrellano, 25, entered pleas Thursday for three counts of manufacture, distribution and transport for sale of an unlawful assault weapon.

Arrellano also pleaded no contest to machine gun conversion and possessing a silencer and acknowledged that the crime was committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang.

She was given until Tuesday to surrender for sentencing and would likely be sentenced to four years in prison, prosecutors said.

Marroquin attorney Patrick Smith did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Thursday. No phone listing was available for Arrellano.

Marroquin was arrested in June at his Downey home following a nine-month investigation into weapons sales by the 18th Street gang, to which he once belonged.

Arrellano was arrested at a Cudahy home as a result of the same investigation

Marroquin founded No Guns in 1996, ostensibly to reduce gang and gun violence. The group received $1.5 million from the city as a subcontractor on anti-gang efforts but its contract was canceled last year after authorities learned that Marroquin had hired relatives, including his son, Hector "Little Weasel" Marroquin.

The son is an acknowledged 18th Street gang member who pleaded no contest in June 2007 to home-invasion robbery and was sentenced to nine years in state prison.

Of course now we know why he was for gun control...eliminate the competition, and you get better profit and better control over other gangs. Makes good business sense, but he's certainly lacking in being civic minded.

 

[AndrewR]

He was always against certain types of guns, just not the machinegun and silenced gun types. 😀

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: AndrewR
He was always against certain types of guns, just not the machinegun and silenced gun types. 😀

Correction, guns in the hands of his enemies.

This is an interesting story, though I don?t see much too it. Always beware Greeks bearing gifts.

 

[maluckey]

This is an interesting story, though I don?t see much too it. Always beware Greeks bearing gifts.

Exactly my point Jaskalas.

This being an election year, people are doing all sorts of things that sometimes seem like great ideas. We in the Army have a deep distrust of "Good Idea Fairies". These Fairies come around and declare that they are making changes, and long standing ways of doing things are often disposed of without a full analysis. In the end, we often see failure, and return to the old ways.

That's not to say that change is bad. Just beware of change without thought as to how and why the change is happening.

 

[Nebor]

Most gun control advocates still want to be protected by guns, while taking them away from everyone else.

 

[maluckey]

Just like Rosie O. Her personal security during the "Million Mom March" was carrying firearms. I guess that it's not OK for me, but Rosie can have armed security for hers.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: maluckey
Just like Rosie O. Her personal security during the "Million Mom March" was carrying firearms. I guess that it's not OK for me, but Rosie can have armed security for hers.

In Rosie's defense, I am positive that you don't evoke homicidal feelings in as many people as she does. 😀