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Updated 11/24/2009 11:20 AM

NYPD Bust Gets Dozens Of Illegal Guns Off The Streets

By: Grace Rauh

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Undercover New York City Police Department officers have removed dozens of illegal guns off city streets after busting a Florida-to-New York gun trafficking ring.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced the 105-count indictment Monday.

They say multiple units worked in unison for three months to arrest Ryan Woodard, 27, and Watson Joaquin, 22, for purchasing the weapons at gun shows in Florida, then transporting them to Brooklyn to sell at a discounted price.

"I don't know how many murders you have to have before people say enough is enough. Or maybe they will start to realize that it could be them or their child," said the mayor.

A Kings County grand jury returned the indictment against both men for multiple sales of a firearm in the first degree.

Authorities recovered 28 semiautomatic pistols, three assault rifles, and three sawed-off shotguns. They were often sold fully-loaded, ready to be fired. Just a few weeks ago, another undercover investigation by the city into out-of-state gun shows found dealers repeatedly violating federal law by selling guns illegally.

City leaders want criminals to know these guns have no place in New York neighborhoods. Today's event comes a week after Vada Vasquez, 15, was hit by a bullet that was not intended for her.

"We have to get the guns out of the hands of criminals and out of the hands of children,” Bloomberg said. "And it has nothing to do with the Second Amendment, it has nothing to do with politics, it has nothing to do with your right to hunt, it's plain and simple common sense of obeying laws that are already on the books."

The defendants face up to 25 years in prison.

The district attorney says he will ask for the sentences to be served consecutively.

Officials also used Monday's announcement to promote the city's Gun Stop program, in which anonymous tipsters are rewarded $1,000 if the information they give police about someone carrying an illegal gun leads to an arrest. The city has used it to make over 4,000 gun arrests in the last eight years.

Anyone wishing to make an anonymous tip about an illegal gun can call 1-866-GUN-STOP or 311.

Meanwhile, activists and elected officials staged their own protest against gun violence Monday as part of a national "Day of Outrage."

"This is all about New York. It is not just about Harlem. Not just about the neighborhoods where Hispanic and African American citizens live. This is about the Upper East Side, Bensonhurst, Canarsie, Howard Beach, Park Slope, Lower East Side, Chelsea, Brooklyn Heights," said movie director Spike Lee.

Mayor Bloomberg's national organization, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, took out a full-page ad Monday in the Washington Post calling on Congress to bar terror suspects from purchasing guns.

The mayor is scheduled to appear Tuesday with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy to announce a new federal measure to combat gun violence.