PA Amtrak Used For Gun Trafficking ‘Iron Pipeline’: Feds

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Amtrak lines that pass through Philadelphia were used as part of what authorities called an "iron pipeline" bringing illegal firearms into the region, federal officials said, as they announced the conviction of a prominent gun trafficker.

Junious Flemming, 29, of Trenton, New Jersey was sentenced to two years and three months behind bars, in addition to three years of probation, by U.S. District Judge Nitza I. Quiñones-Alejandro.

"Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced strategies to stem the flow of firearms used to commit violence and support local law enforcement partners, including cracking down on firearms trafficking and the ‘iron pipeline’ – the illegal flow of guns sold in mostly southern states, transported up the East Coast, and found at crime scenes in cities like ours," U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said in a statement.

Flemming's operation ran from Oct. 2020 to March 2021, investigators said. On at least three occasions, he paid others to purchase guns in North Carolina and put them on trains heading north, according to authorities.

Flemming then trafficked the guns around Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

"Today’s sentencing demonstrates that we are aggressively engaged in doing this work; we are keeping our word to focus on getting the most dangerous criminals and firearms off the street," Wlliams added.

The operation was finally stopped after federal agents executed a search warrant at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia on March 9, 2021. They said they found 10 semi-automatic firearms in the luggage of one of Flemming's henchmen.

Flemming was arrested the same day as he came to pick that man up, police said.

All told, Flemming brought at least 40 weapons into the Philadelphia area via Amtrak, according to authorities.

Flemming had previously pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy and transporting firearms on a common carrier in Sept. 2021.