Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 19, 1994 TAG: 9406190110
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ARLINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Justin Glynn French, 23, and Jon Richard Doyle, 25, face charges of conspiracy to unlawfully possess and transfer firearms and drug trafficking.
Authorities believe the two men sold 50 firearms using falsified documents from driver's licenses photocopied by an employee of Lindsay Cadillac. The licenses belonged to customers who took test drives at the Alexandria car dealership.
French and Doyle were arrested this month after a two-month investigation led by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Among other things, French and Doyle are accused of selling undercover ATF agents 25 semiautomatic pistols and shotguns in return for $2,550 and more than a pound of cocaine.
French and Doyle allegedly used the driver's licenses to falsify records when selling guns to buyers who did not want to provide identification for federal and state firearms forms.
The Lindsay employee who supplied photocopies of the licenses has been fired but has not been charged, officials said.
"This is the first time we've ever encountered anything like this," said John P. Limbach, an ATF spokesman.
According to court papers, French told undercover ATF agents that he could provide false names for federal and state reporting forms for a $50 fee.
Investigators said gun buyers were able to avoid having their backgrounds checked and to skirt Virginia's law limiting firearms purchases to one a month.
Several dozen copies of driver's licenses were found in a search of the home French shared with Doyle, authorities said.
Patrick D. Hynes, who heads ATF's Washington field office, said agents will contact people whose driver's licenses were used. Agents also are trying to determine whether any guns sold were used in crimes, he said.
Attorneys for the suspects would not discuss the charges.
French, a law student at George Mason University, had a federal firearms license and operated his business, Defensive Security Systems, out of his home, authorities said.
French and Doyle are being held without bond.
According to affidavits filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, ATF agents learned of French's business through an informant and began a series of undercover meetings in French's home March 21.
An agent bought a $200 shotgun from French and paid an additional $50 to avoid the background check, the affidavit said.
Over the next two months, the negotiations escalated, and French and Doyle eventually sought to sell guns for cocaine, agents said.
The suspects were arrested after the agents gave Doyle 500 grams of cocaine in return for six semiautomatic pistols and three 12-gauge shotguns, authorities said.
by CNB