{"id":38659,"date":"2022-07-26T17:36:11","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T21:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=38659"},"modified":"2023-09-24T16:23:06","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T20:23:06","slug":"a-convicted-felon-and-two-others-were-charged-with-trafficking-fully-automatic-ghost-guns-in-marietta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=38659","title":{"rendered":"A convicted felon and two others were charged with trafficking fully automatic ghost guns in Marietta"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MARIETTA<\/a> — Jelani Kazmende, Wiley Martin, and Robert Louis Jeffords Jr., have been arraigned on federal charges of dealing firearms\u00a0without a license, possession of machine guns, possession of unregistered firearms, and conspiracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kazmende, Martin, and Jeffords were indicted by a federal grand jury on July 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEquipped with large capacity magazines, illegal machine guns like those allegedly transported, possessed, and sold by these\u00a0defendants present immediate danger to our community,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. \u201cTo protect the community, this office and its partners will identify, target, and prosecute to the fullest extent those who peddle these weapons unlawfully.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Buchanan, the charges, and other information presented in court, on June 2, outside of a restaurant\u00a0in Marietta, Jelani Kazmende allegedly provided five privately manufactured \u201cghost guns\u201d to Wiley Martin, a multi-convicted felon who was then serving a term of state probation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGhost guns\u201d refers to firearms,\u00a0including a frame or receiver, completed, assembled, or otherwise produced by a person other than a licensed manufacturer, and without a serial number placed by a licensed manufacturer at the time the firearm was produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The firearms that Kazmende allegedly gave to Martin lacked any genuine manufacturer\u2019s makings or legitimate serial numbers.\u00a0Inside of each firearm was a drop-in \u201cauto sear device\u201d designed to allow the firearms to fire multiple rounds with a single pull of the trigger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to prosecutors, following his receiving the firearms, Martin sold all five weapons \u2014 and a sixth full-auto pistol \u2014 to undercover\u00a0FBI agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 16, Kazmende and Martin met Robert Louis Jeffords Jr., outside of the same turkey leg restaurant where Kazmende\u00a0and Martin had met two weeks prior. Kazmende, Martin, and Jeffords removed 16 privately manufactured firearms chambered in various calibers from Jeffords\u2019s truck. Separately, Jeffords carried 17 drop-in auto sear devices into the restaurant. Once the firearms\u00a0had been converted to fire automatically, prosecutors say Martin intended to sell the guns to the undercover FBI agents again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, before the transaction could be attempted, law enforcement officers surrounded the restaurant and arrested all three defendants. They also\u00a0recovered each of the guns and auto sear devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jelani Kazmende, 38, of Marietta, Wiley Martin, 42, of Acworth<\/a>, and Robert Louis Jeffords, Jr., 62, of Forest\u00a0City, North Carolina, were arraigned before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Russell G. Vineyard on federal charges of dealing firearms without a license, possession of machine\u00a0guns, possession of unregistered firearms, and conspiracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith distressing regularity, we see the damage that criminals can inflict on our communities with weapons of war,\u201d said Keri Farley,\u00a0Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta<\/a>. \u201cIllegal guns have no place in Georgia and the FBI will continue to work diligently with our partners to remove these dangerous criminals and weapons from our streets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with\u00a0assistance from the Cobb County Police Department, Marietta Police Department, Sandy Springs Police Department, Douglasville Police Department, Georgia State Patrol, and Fulton County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause of the combined efforts of ATF and its law enforcement partners, criminal elements have been surgically removed from the community\u00a0of Marietta and placed where they belong: into the criminal justice system to be processed and prosecuted for illegal activity,\u201d said Alisha Jones, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of ATF\u2019s Atlanta Field Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg is prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[mailerlite_form form_id=2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jelani Kazmende, Wiley Martin, and Robert Louis Jeffords Jr., have been arraigned on federal charges of dealing firearms\u00a0without a license, possession of machine guns, possession of unregistered firearms, and conspiracy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[8486,11004,8485],"class_list":["post-38659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-cobb-county","tag-guns","tag-marietta","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}