
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 24, 1995                   TAG: 9506260146
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FRANKLIN MAN FACES CHARGES

A Franklin County man has been arrested, charged with using his firearm business to sell weapons to convicted felons in New York City.

Richard A. Yarmy, 54, of Boones Mill was arrested Tuesday morning on a fugitive warrant from New York.

Yarmy faces 25 misdemeanor and felony counts. The most serious is one count of ``enterprise corruption,'' according to Lt. Ewell Hunt of the Franklin County Sheriff's Office.

New York's enterprise corruption charge is filed when a legal business is used for illegal acts, Hunt said.

Yarmy holds a federal firearm license, making his mail-order gun business and his buying and selling of guns all along the East Coast legal.

In fact, Hunt said, Yarmy "did nothing illegal in our state.''

But Yarmy is believed to have been buying guns for $100-$300 at gun shows and selling them to felons in New York City for $500-$1,500, Hunt said. Felons cannot purchase guns legally.

Law officers seized about 270 firearms from Yarmy's home; about 175 were handguns, Hunt said. About 500,000 rounds of ammunition also were found at Yarmy's home.

Yarmy is being held without bond in the Franklin County Jail. He has appealed an earlier bond hearing to the Circuit Court while he fights extradition to New York, Hunt said.

by CNB