Colorado Man Sentenced for Firearms Dealing and Trafficking in the DMV
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Defendant Intentionally Trafficked Up to 24 Firearms Primarily Through Instagram
WASHINGTON – Demarco Diggs, 26, of Aurora, Colorado, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for dealing firearms without a license and trafficking firearms into the District of Columbia. Diggs used various methods to advertise his weapons for sale, most often through Instagram, and intentionally sold them to convicted felons who were prohibited from buying weapons. Law enforcement has now recovered multiple firearms that Diggs trafficked, including six within the D.C. Metropolitan Area, which include guns that have been involved in multiple shootings or discharges in the DMV area.
The sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves; Special Agent in Charge Craig Kailimai, of the Washington Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); Acting U.S. Marshal Ronald Carter of the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and Chief Pamela A. Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Diggs pleaded guilty on November 14, 2023, in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to one count of engaging in the business of dealing firearms without a license and one count of illegal transport of a firearm. In addition to the prison term, the Honorable Royce C. Lamberth ordered Diggs to serve three of supervised release on completion of his prison sentence. Diggs has agreed to forfeit 25 firearms, including pistols, rifles, and shotguns, as well as an assortment of ammunition. In court documents, Diggs agreed that his firearms dealing involved up to 24 firearms.
Between September 2021 and September 2023, law enforcement recovered six firearms in the D.C. Metropolitan Area which were traced back to being purchased and subsequently re-sold by Diggs. The firearms were linked to shootings or discharges and theft incidents, and one firearm was recovered from a November 2022 search warrant at the residence of Quinton McLean. McLean was indicted as a result of that search warrant and, in March 2023, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a person convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year. Judge Lamberth sentenced McLean to 34 months’ imprisonment and 36 months of supervised release.
Investigators determined that each of the recovered firearms had been purchased by Diggs in Georgia in April and June 2021, where Diggs resided at the time. In June and July 2021, Diggs traveled from Georgia to Washington, D.C., to sell firearms to prohibited persons. To date, law enforcement has identified nearly two dozen firearms that Diggs purchased from federal firearm licensees (FFLs) and at gun shows between 2020 and 2023, which were then re-sold by Diggs for profit.
Over the course of his illegal firearms trafficking, Diggs often employed Instagram to identify prospective customers to whom he would re-sell firearms that he purchased. According to court documents, Diggs used direct messages to display inventories of weapons for sale to prospective customers. In one such Instagram direct message exchange, Diggs explained to a prospective customer that he was selling his firearms “for people that [can’t] get them on [their] own.”
On March 24, 2023, law enforcement executed a search warrant at two separate residences associated with Diggs in Aurora, Colorado. From those searches, law enforcement recovered more than a half-dozen firearms, assorted ammunition and magazines, and two gun cases bearing serial numbers that matched to firearms recovered in the D.C. Metropolitan Area.
This investigation was led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), in coordination with the Metropolitan Police Department and the United States Marshals Service (USMS), with assistance from the ATF Denver Regional Anti-Violence Enforcement Network (RAVEN).
It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew W. Kinskey of the Violence Reduction and Trafficking Offenses Section and Trial Attorney Ethan Cantor of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. Valuable assistance was provided by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam L.D. Stempel and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy T. Wang.