Convicted Felon Sentenced to 8 Years in Federal Prison for Illegally Possessing 30 Firearms

CHICAGO — A convicted felon was sentenced today to eight years in federal prison for illegally possessing 30 guns that had been stolen from a shipment of firearms at a railyard on the South Side of Chicago.

NATHAN DRIGGERS possessed the guns on April 12, 2015, at his store in the 12700 block of South Halsted Street in Chicago’s West Pullman neighborhood. Driggers had previously been convicted of a felony and was not legally allowed to possess a firearm.

All 30 of the guns were among approximately 111 firearms stolen from a railroad car in Chicago earlier that day. The firearms were aboard a cargo train en route from a Ruger factory in New Hampshire to Spokane, Wash. The train was parked overnight on the South Side of Chicago when thieves broke locks on a train car and walked off with the guns.

A jury in April convicted Driggers, 44, of Richton Park, on one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a felon. U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp Jr. imposed the 96-month sentence in federal court in Chicago.

The sentencing was announced by Joel R. Levin, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Celinez Nunez, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Chicago Police Department and the Norfolk Southern Railroad Police Department provided valuable assistance.

A co-defendant, WARREN GATES of Chicago, was sentenced in January to five years and three months in prison for illegally possessing 24 firearms, 17 of which had been stolen from the train. Gates admitted purchasing the 17 stolen firearms for purposes of reselling them for a profit, and he sold eleven of them prior to his arrest.

To date, law enforcement has recovered 19 of the 111 stolen firearms at various locations and crime scenes in the Chicago area.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher V. Parente and Eric Pruitt.