The gun used to shoot an NYPD detective last year has been traced back to a group of heroin addicts in New England who stole it from a Vietnam vet then traded it for drugs, cops said Tuesday.
Police say the weapon was one of 20 Jennifer Griffin, 43, Kenneth Stone, 29, and Gregory Miller, 33, stole from the Vermont home of Henry Duval, 65. After they flipped it for drugs, it somehow ended up in New York where it was used in the shooting of Brooklyn North Warrants Squad Detective Miguel Soto, 32, in July 2018, cops said.
Records show the gun was initially purchased legally, along with two other long rifles, by Duval.
The three suspects were charged with conspiring to sell a firearm used in drug trafficking, according to a federal indictment unsealed Monday. The group had discussed selling the gun for drugs on Facebook, the indictment said.
Deputy Inspector Brian Gill said guns-for-drugs cases have become more common lately as a result of the opioid epidemic, adding the gun’s path to New York was similar to one used in the fatal shooting of police officer Miosotis Familia in 2017.
That gun was traced to West Virginia, where an addict stole it and sold it, police said. Three men, Adam Plauche, 36, Mark Hanstaw, 28, and Tyler Hall, 26, were arrested and charged with federal gun trafficking charges, cops said. Plauche was also charged with knowingly selling a stolen firearm. Hanstaw and Hall were known heroin dealers, according to authorities.