
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 11, 1994                    TAG: 9406110343 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: D5    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940611                                 LENGTH: NEWARK, N.J.

FIREFIGHTER IN N.J. GETS 3 YEARS FOR GUN SCHEME

{LEAD} A former city firefighter who admitted smuggling guns into the state was sentenced Friday to 37 months in prison for his role in a ring that paid buyers in Virginia with drugs or cash.

One of the 85 weapons sold on New Jersey streets was linked to the 1991 murder of a state official. Another was connected to a drug case in which a city detective was killed just before he was to testify, investigators said.

{REST} Danny Bass, 31, was also fined $2,000 by U.S. District Judge Alfred J. Lechner.

``The defendant's conduct reflects a profound and callous disregard for the safety and well-being of his fellow man,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney James E. Cecchi, who is prosecuting the case.

Bass and a Newark police officer, Sam Gilbert, pleaded guilty earlier this year. Gilbert is to be sentenced later this month.

Prosecutors said Gilbert, 30, of Iselin was a jail guard at the Powhatan Correctional Center in Goochland, Va., while he ran the ring before joining the Newark force in 1991.

Both he and Bass were suspended without pay after their Oct. 22 arrests and have been fired because of their guilty pleas.

From September 1990 to November 1990, prosecutors allege, Bass wired money to Gilbert in Virginia. They recruited people who bought weapons selected by Gilbert, and Gilbert took the guns immediately after purchase.

The scheme was uncovered during the probe into the March 1991 fatal shooting of George Hicks, 57, of Newark, a program coordinator with the state attorney general's office.

Another smuggled weapon was associated with a drug trial at which Detective John Sczyrek was to testify in June 1993. He was shot and killed with a different gun while waiting outside the courtroom at the Essex County Courthouse.

{KEYWORDS} GUN SMUGGLING SENTENCING by CNB