Indictment announced for suspected Brooklyn gun trafficker
Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes and New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly on Wednesday announced the indictment of Christopher “Country” McPhaul, 43, for illegally selling 30 firearms to an undercover police officer in Brooklyn on 10 separate occasions, between April 1, 2013 and Sept. 6, 2013.
According to the investigation, McPhaul offered delivery service of various firearms and ammunition in exchange for cash that an NYPD’s Firearms Investigations Unit undercover officer paid in advance via wire or at the time of delivery. The defendant communicated using a cellphone, often through coded text messages, referring to guns for sale as “toys for kids,” and the officer would reply in-kind.
The six-month investigation revealed that McPhaul routinely traveled to the Raeford/Fayetteville area of North Carolina—a trip, the indictment papers alleges, was to replenish his supply of weapons and then return to Brooklyn to sell the weapons which, it is alleged, included rifles, revolvers and semi-automatic pistols.
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