Ten men were arrested after authorities broke up an alleged gun-running ring based in the Bronx.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Wednesday announced the takedown of a violent gun-running ring that allegedly bought dozens of weapons in Maine and Connecticut and smuggled them into the city on Metro-North trains.
"The gun used to kill Officer Brian Moore was a gun purchased in a similar way. It was bought out of state and smuggled into New York," Schneiderman said. "People who do this for a living, we're going to pursue as aggressively as we can."
Undercover investigators bought 93 weapons, including semi-automatics and a pistol machine gun, from members of the ring.
"They were concealing them in carry-on luggage, in bags," Schneiderman said. "They weren't transporting dozens of guns at a time, but they were very effective at this."
Schneiderman says William Soler, also known as "Redrum" and "Wobbles," led the group, which they say was affiliated with the Bloods street gang.
He says undercover officers bought 93 guns from the men, some of which he says were transported to the city on Metro-North trains. Schneiderman said the gang used Metro-North's Fordman Road Station in the Bronx.
"The guns were clearly designed for criminal use. Eleven of them had their serial numbers filed off and several of them were illegal guns under New York's strict gun control laws. They were brought in from states where gun laws were looser," Schneiderman said. "This is the way criminals get guns that they use to murder police officers and to murder other New Yorkers."
All 10 men are charged with felony conspiracy, criminal possession of a firearm and criminal sale of a firearm. Two of the men were also indicted for murder conspiracy.
The gun-smuggling operation mirrored another criminal enterprise busted by Schneiderman in March, a drug ring that used Metro-North trains to move heroin out the city.