A string of recent crimes has gun violence top of mind for many New Yorkers. 

“I feel unsafe, especially here, in that the police are being shot and they are dying,” said a Bronx mother who didn’t want to be named. “I’m always passing here not knowing what will happen, only God is protecting us, honestly, so I feel very unsafe, for me and for my children.”

She and many others are wondering how people are getting their hands on illegal guns, and where the guns are coming from. 

What You Need To Know

  • A Bronx man has been indicted on 304 counts of criminal gun trafficking charges, including criminal sale of a firearm and criminal possession of a firearm

  • Of the 73 guns sold, 59 were loaded and four were considered assault weapons

  • Some sales happened on Allen Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Most happened in a contained area in the Bronx, where Rodriguez used to live

On Wednesday, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark and NYC Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell announced 23-year-old Shakor Rodriguez of the Bronx had been indicted on 304 counts of criminal gun trafficking charges. 

Police say between July 2020 and December 2021, Rodriguez trafficked 73 guns and 40 high-capacity magazines into the Bronx and Manhattan, where they were sold to an undercover NYPD officer. 

Of those guns, 59 were loaded, four of them were considered assault weapons. 

The undercover officer paid Rodriguez an average of between $1,000 and $1,500 per gun.  

Some of those sales happened on Allen Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. 

The majority happened in the Bronx, near where Rodriguez used to live, in the vicinity of Weeks Avenue and Nelson Avenue.

The area is right off the Cross-Bronx Expressway, part of I-95, which city leaders have deemed “The Iron Pipeline.”

On Monday, while laying out his blueprint to put an end to gun violence in the city, Mayor Eric Adams pledged to crack down on illegal guns entering the city this way. 

Running up the east coast from Florida to Maine, cutting right through New York City, Mayor Adams said this route is how many illegal guns end up here, whether by car, train or bus. 

That’s exactly what investigators say happened in this case. 

Rodriguez was attending college in Tennessee. 

The investigation found he brought the guns up from the South, sometimes carrying them in a duffel bag, by bus. 

Mayor Adams said in 2021 NYPD officers removed more than 6,000 guns from city streets.

Still, he said new guns arrived by train, car and bus every day. 

Mayor Adams said he will be working with New York State law enforcement to add more spot checks at city entry points, like Port Authority and other bus and train stations. 

Rodriguez is due back in Bronx Supreme Court on Monday, January 31.