Former Arizona DEA agent pleads guilty to illegally selling firearms
Aug 14, 2018, 8:35 PM
PHOENIX — A former special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration in Arizona pleaded guilty Tuesday for illegally selling firearms without a license.
Joseph Michael Gill, 42, of Tucson, pleaded guilty to one count of dealing firearms without a license, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona announced.
Gill, a former supervisory special agent who was assigned to the Nogales office, was found to have sold multiple firearms that he bought from licensed dealers on the website GunBroker.com.
According to an affidavit, Gill applied for a Federal Firearms License with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 2012, but withdrew the application sometime after.
After withdrawing his application, Gill bought the firearms and sold them online in 2016. The agency said Gill had engaged in approximately 645 transactions.
According to a plea agreement, Gill purchased three Colt .223/5.56 caliber rifles from an online dealer on June 12, 2016 for a total of $1,896.
Those rifles were shipped to a licensed dealer in Sahuarita and Gill picked them up six days later.
The next month, court documents said Gill then sold two of the rifles to two people who he had reason to believe intended to use or dispose of the firearms unlawfully.
Gill resigned from his position with the Drug Enforcement Administration on June 30.
United States Magistrate Judge Lynnette C. Kimmins scheduled his sentencing for Nov. 26.
Gill could serve five years in prison and be ordered to pay a $250,000 fine.
The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada.