Queens Tribune

Five men were indicted on Wednesday for selling more than three dozen weapons – including an assault rifle, sawed-off shotguns and semi-automatic pistols with silencers – to undercover police officers.

Thomas Suarez, 26, of Brooklyn and Staten Island; Ali Kabeer, 25, of Queens; Ali Hassan 42, of Queens; and brothers Scott Kwaak, 21, and Clinton Kwaak, 24, both of Brooklyn were variously charged in a 63-count indictment including first-, second- and third-degree criminal sale of a firearm, the manufacture, transport, disposition and defacement of weapons and fifth-degree conspiracy.

“The defendants are accused of attempting to seed the streets of New York with dozens of illegal weapons that would have posed a serious public safety threat if their plan had been carried out,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

The indictment charges that the defendants – either individually or jointly – sold a total of 38 weapons – many of which were defaced by having their serial numbers removed – to undercover officers at various locations in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan between July 2, 2007 and Aug. 21, 2008.

Dubbed Operation Tommy Gun, detectives assigned to the NYPD’s Firearms Investigation Unit picked up street information on illegal gun merchants in July 2007. Together with the District Attorney’s Narcotics Investigations Bureau they set up a “sting” operation that included a series of telephone conversations followed by face-to-face street transactions, prosecutors said.

“So far this year, New York City Police officers have taken over 3,000 guns off of city streets. They include the 38 guns recovered in this case, and all had the potential to inflict death and untold misery. The fact that they are out of criminal hands is one of the reasons why New York City remains the safest big city in the country,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said.

Other weapons allegedly sold included handguns of various calibers and 12 gauge sawed-off shotguns.

If convicted, Suarez and Scott Kwaak each face up to 25 years in prison; Kabeer faces up to 15 years in prison; and Hassan and Clinton Kwaak each face up to seven years in prison.