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Melrose federally licensed dealer pleads guilty to firearms trafficking

Posted 1/16/25

ORLANDO – U.S. Attorney Roger B. Handberg announced Matthew L. Stephen Easton, 35, of Melrose, pleaded guilty to firearms trafficking. Easton faces a maximum penalty …

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Melrose federally licensed dealer pleads guilty to firearms trafficking


Posted

ORLANDO – U.S. Attorney Roger B. Handberg announced Matthew L. Stephen Easton, 35, of Melrose, pleaded guilty to firearms trafficking. Easton faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 24. Easton’s co-defendants, Derick Yamir Perez Diaz, 22, of Orlando, and Ernesto Vasquez, 23, of Kissimmee, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic firearms. They each also face a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison. Perez Diaz and Vasquez are scheduled to be sentenced on March 25 and April 8, respectively.

According to the plea agreements, Easton, a federally licensed firearms dealer, supplied Perez Diaz with large quantities of firearms despite knowing that Perez Diaz was dealing in firearms without a license. Perez Diaz, in turn, trafficked those firearms to Vasquez, who resold them and smuggled them out of the country. Between October and December 2023, more than 100 Glock pistols and AK-47 rifles were trafficked.

On April 18, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives executed a Search Warrant at Vazquez’s residence. Inside, they found multiple firearms, stockpiles of ammunition and grenades.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Noah P. Dorman and Dana E. Hill are prosecuting it.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN). This program brings together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence and make our neighborhoods safer. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities and measuring the results.