Rockford Man Sentenced to Eight and a Half Years in Prison for Illegally Possessing Firearms

ROCKFORD — A Rockford man has been sentenced to eight and a half years in federal prison for illegally possessing firearms.

JOSEPH GARZA, 40, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.  U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston imposed the sentence on Monday during a hearing in federal court in Rockford.

Garza admitted in a plea agreement that in 2017 and 2018 he illegally possessed and sold seven firearms, utilizing two co-defendants as brokers for the sales.  Garza set the price for the firearm sales and delivered the guns to the co-defendants, who then conducted the sales with the buyer, who was working as a confidential informant for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

The sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Christopher Amon, Special Agent-in-Charge of the ATF Chicago Field Division.  The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert S. Ladd.

Holding illegal firearm possessors accountable through federal prosecution is a centerpiece of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).  In the Northern District of Illinois, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and law enforcement partners have deployed the PSN program to attack a broad range of violent crime issues facing the district, particularly firearm offenses.