24 YEAR OLD BRONX MAN FACING TWELVE YEARS IMPRISONMENT FOLLOWING CONVICTION ON GUN TRAFFICKING CHARGES

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 24 year old Naashan Wauchope has been convicted of conspiracy and other offenses in connection with a long term investigation during which he sold more than two dozen guns to an undercover detective.

Wauchope, of 3555 Bainbridge Avenue, the Bronx, pled guilty to one count of Criminal Sale of a Firearm in the 2nd degree, six counts of Criminal Sale of a Firearm in the 3rd degree, one count of Conspiracy in the 4th degree and one count of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 5th degree.

Acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett set sentencing for Wednesday, May 21, 2003 in Part M-60. Under terms of the plea agreement, Wauchope will be sentenced to twelve years in prison on the charge of Criminal Sale of a Firearm in the 2nd degree, a Class C felony offense. The judge will also impose current sentences for the remaining less serious offenses, two to six years imprisonment on each of six counts of Criminal Sale of a Firearm in the 3rd degree, one to three years imprisonment on the conspiracy charge, and one to three years imprisonment on the drug possession charge.

Wauchope’s conviction was the result of a four month joint investigation by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office and the NYPD’s Firearms Investigations Unit. During the course of the investigation, from December 2001 through March 2002, Wauchope sold a total of twenty six firearms, mostly semi automatic pistols, as well as twenty eight tablets of the drug "ecstasy" to an undercover detective. There were a total of eight separate transactions worth approximately $19,000. The defendant also admitting that he had conspired to sell the undercover detective an additional thirty one firearms. New Mexico State Police, on March 3, 2002, seized thirty one guns that were found in the trunk of a car in which the defendant was a passenger. The guns, which had been purchased legally in Arizona, were confiscated on the suspicion that they were being transported for sale elsewhere. However, New Mexico authorities declined to file charges against Wauchope or his traveling companions.

One of Wauchope’s co-defendants, Warren Blake, is still awaiting trial on a single charge of Criminal Sale of a Firearm in the 3rd degree. A second co-defendant, Lotoya Collins, pled guilty in March 2002 to one count of Attempted Criminal Sale of a Firearm in the 3rd degree. Collins was sentenced to six months in jail and placed on probation for four and a half years of intensive supervision.

Assistant District Attorney Daniel Sullivan, of the Investigations Division’s Rackets Bureau is prosecuting this case.