A Manhattan weapons peddler sold 80 firearms to undercover cops — guns that had been trafficked from the South through the “Iron Pipeline,” prosecutors said at the trial of the alleged dealer Monday.
Abdul Davis “was working in the black market for illegal guns that were circulating the streets of New York City,” Assistant District Attorney David Nasar said in his opening statement at the conspiracy trial of Davis and three others in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Nasar said the NYPD’s Firearm Investigations Unit was working an undercover sting and buying “these instruments of death” from Davis, building a case against him as he hustled to work with his suppliers to get more guns, including assault weapons, brought to the city from Virginia and elsewhere.
Davis, 53, faces conspiracy, criminal sale of a firearm and related charges for hawking pistols, assault weapons, revolvers, shotguns and ammunition around W. 166th St. and Saint Nicholas Ave. between March 2015 and April 2016, prosecutors said.
Justice Mark Dwyer sealed the courtroom to the press and public for the first witness — the undercover cop who allegedly made purchases from Davis — although he allowed the quartet’s relatives to remain in the audience.
Abdul’s lawyer Glenn Hardy said after court that Davis “continues to proclaim his innocence as the government continues to overreach and entrap innocent people.”
Also on trial are Davis’s wife Shelita Funderburk, 52, and Virginia residents Trenton Pointer, 46, and Daemon Jenkins, 51. Pointer and Jenkins are accused of supplying Davis with weapons they purchased in states with lax gun laws for resale on the streets in New York.
Pointer’s lawyer Robert Georges argued in his opening statement that the DA lacks proof against his client.
“You need evidence and there is not going to be any,” Georges said.
