Courts. (Credit: Flickr/Creative Commons)
Kevin William McCloud, of Philadelphia, was the recipient in a straw purchase scheme, police said.
A Philadelphia man was sentenced to 19 to 38 years in state prison for his role in illegally obtaining firearms as part of a gun trafficking network and straw purchase scheme in three counties that was dismantled by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Violent Crime Unit.
Kevin William McCloud, 33, of Gillingham Street, who has a criminal history involving buying and possessing firearms, was sentenced by Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Wendy G. Rothstein on charges of corrupt organizations, conspiring in the unlawful sale or transfer of firearms, conspiring in the sale or transfer of firearms to an ineligible person, persons not to possess firearms, possession of a firearm with an altered manufacturer’s number and criminal use of a communication facility in connection with incidents that occurred between 2020 and 2023, according to charging documents.
McCloud had a nonjury trial, per The Mercury.
Authorities said McCloud conspired with major player Bryan Jaurice Clark Jr., 27, of General Patterson Drive in Cheltenham Township, to obtain five guns, of which four had obliterated serial numbers. Per the report, Clark was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison for his role in the trafficking ring.
Clark, prosecutors said, purchased 17 of the total 21 guns in the trafficking network in Hatfield Township and Feasterville, Bucks County, between September 2020 and April 2021. Clark, authorities said, then turned around and sold or transferred the guns to McCloud.
Police said a clerk at the Hatfield gun shop alerted authorities that Clark bought Glock and Smith & Wesson .40-caliber and 9mm semiautomatic handguns under “suspicious circumstances.”
“There are no Bryan Clarks without the Kevin McClouds of the world. So, they need to be held accountable for receiving those guns,” said Assistant District Attorney William Harry Highland III, according to the report.
Read more on the sentencing and investigation here.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
