St. Louis County felon convicted on 12 counts for selling guns and drugs to ATF

Brandon Shaw, 44, was found guilty of distributing drugs and illegally dealing firearms after repeated undercover sales to an ATF agent.

St. Louis County man convicted after selling guns and meth to undercover federal agent

A federal jury in St. Louis found Brandon Shaw, 44, guilty on 12 counts Thursday, following a week-long trial in U.S. District Court. According to justice.gov, Shaw — a convicted felon — repeatedly sold firearms and controlled substances to an undercover agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

The jury returned verdicts on five counts of distributing a controlled substance, six counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and one count of operating as an unlicensed firearms dealer.

Evidence presented at trial showed that a confidential informant first arranged for Shaw to sell a firearm to the undercover ATF agent on 13 September 2023. Over the following four months, Shaw conducted multiple additional transactions with the same agent, handing over 10 more firearms, more than four pounds of methamphetamine, and more than 30 grams of fentanyl. All transactions were recorded on audio and video.

Some of the firearms Shaw sold were ones he had built himself; at least one was stolen. Shaw took the stand in his own defence, acknowledging that he built guns, that recordings captured him selling firearms and drugs to the ATF agent, and that he was aware a felon is prohibited from building or possessing firearms.

Shaw's criminal history included a prior federal conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. On 1 July 2021 he was sentenced to two years in prison for that offence. On 6 January 2023 he received a further four-month sentence for violating the terms of his supervised release. He was still on supervised release at the time he committed the current offences.

The ATF led the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jennifer Szczucinski and Joseph Green are prosecuting the case.

The prosecution forms part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the Department of Justice's nationwide programme that coordinates federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to address violent crime.

Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)