SEATTLE — A Seattle man caught selling high-powered firearms and heroin from his basement apartment was sentenced on Friday to six years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
When Jorge Carlos Camps was arrested in May, officials seized a dozen weapons, including a machine gun and silencer. Federal prosecutors say his Magnolia neighborhood apartment was just a few blocks from a busy playground in a neighborhood park.
Camps was “advertising his massive armory for sale to anyone interested in purchasing his firearms,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg said in his sentencing memorandum. “Camps was a firearms trafficker who directly contributed to the gun crime problem in our community.”
Camps, 34, was arrested after a confidential source working with the Seattle Police Department bought heroin and an MP-5 rifle from Camps in April 2014. A search of his apartment found assault rifles, hand guns and tactical accessories.
He also sold tactical ballistic body armor and military grade ammunition, prosecutors said. Camps’ “price list” included “explosive ammo, “U.S. Special Forces Navy SEAL” items, Greenberg said. Officials also found badges and patches from area police departments, Greenberg said.
“He had a virtual military armory in his bedroom,” Greenberg said.
Camps had a prior felony conviction for violating a domestic violence court order and was prohibited from possessing firearms, Acting U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes said in a statement.
“This defendant played Russian Roulette with public safety by offering to put high powered firearms into the hands of anyone ready to pay,” Hayes said.
A superseding indictment filed May 28, 2014, in U.S. District Court in Seattle charged Camps with 14 counts ranging from unlawful possession of a firearm and distribution of heroin with intent to distribute. Camps pleaded guilty in October to the firearms charge and prosecutors dismissed the other counts. That charge carried a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison, according to his plea agreement document.
A second defendant in the case, Roger Lee Hiddleston, was sentenced to six years in prison for selling heroin to Camps, prosecutors said.
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