VALLEJO — Five people have been charged with taking part in an illicit gun-trafficking ring whose members allegedly plotted to take advantage of a violent gang rivalry by selling weapons to people on both sides, court records show.
The group made a Super 8 motel on Solano Avenue in Vallejo their headquarters for illegal activity, allegedly meeting prospective buyers there for thousands of dollars worth of gun transactions. Federal prosecutors, who plan to announce the bust Thursday afternoon, say the motel was also a hotspot for drug trafficking and violent crimes.
Charged in the bust are Zuryess Roberts, Taezon Sanderson, Divaya Talley, Anderson Thurston, and Napoleon Washington, who all face charges of either possessing guns as felons, illegally transferring firearms to others, or both, court records show. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Ammunition, or ATF, led the investigation which used a confidential informant to conduct gun sales with members of the group, according to the criminal complaint.
In one such instance, the informant bought a $1,700 machine gun from Talley last September, the complaint says. A week later, the informant allegedly bought a pistol from Roberts and Sanderson for $900. These are just examples from a 62-page complaint that lists numerous alleged gun transactions, totaling tens of thousands of dollars and more than a dozen guns.
In one conversation, the informant allegedly discussed plans to re-sell the guns to rival Norteño and Sureño gangs with Roberts and Thurston. Thurston allegedly replied that as long as buyers “were not police and the money was green, it was good,” the complaint says. Authorities describe the informant as a convicted robber who has been used in other federal investigations and was paid for their work in this case.
Coincidentally, federal prosecutors have also filed a gun possession case against a man who was arrested last December at the same motel. The defendant, Jeffrey Caldwell, allegedly brandished scissors at people in the hotel and announced he was “taking over.” Police sicced a K9 on him and arrested him, then found a large hole in wall of bathroom inside the room he’d been staying in for several days, the complaint says.
Inside the hole, police found “bear spray, sex toys and clothes,” and finally a privately manufactured firearm, the complaint says.
