Gilbert man sentenced to 33 months for unlicensed firearm dealing

PHOENIX — A man from Gilbert was sentenced to 33 months in prison last month after previously pleading guilty to dealing firearms without a license.

Chris Oliver, 24, was indicted for buying guns at Arizona stores to resell them illegally, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona said in a press release.

He and three co-defendants — Dion Delpino of Gilbert, Michael Troy Kelly Jr. of Tempe and Eric Roy Rathbun of Chandler — were charged with 76 counts of making false statements while purchasing firearms.

Delpino, Kelly Jr. and Rathbun are pending sentencing, according to the release.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives law enforcement agency, Homeland Security Investigations, the Commercial Narcotics Interdiction Unit of the Phoenix Police Department and the Phoenix, Mesa, Gilbert and Scottsdale Police Departments investigated the case.

The investigation found that Oliver and his co-conspirators bought at least 123 firearms, mostly handguns, for the purpose of resale between July 2019 and November 2020.

Thirty handguns they allegedly sold were recovered by law enforcement, most of which from prohibited possessors. Six were allegedly recovered in separate homicide investigations.

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