Seven members of a gun trafficking scheme have been sentenced in a gun trafficking ring that went back as far as September 23.
While Jincheng Shi, 28, of St. Cloud was convicted by a jury and sentenced to seven years, the other six pleaded guilty. Five of them are from Osceola County, including: Victor Manuel LaFontaine Ruiz (32, Poinciana), Jose Emanuel Maldonado Rodriguez (33, Kissimmee), Freddie Geovani Cruz Batiz (37, Kissimmee), Jomar Manuel Lopez Montanez (31, Kissimmee) and Derrick Yamil Rivera Robles (30, Kissimmee). Their federal sentences ranged from three years, 10 months to 17 years, four months. The charges included gun trafficking conspiracy, brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, felon in possession of a firearm, unlicensed gun dealing, aiding and abetting, possession of a firearm by an illegal alien and possession of a firearm as an alien admitted under a nonimmigrant visa.
According to court documents, Lafontaine and Maldonado operated a gun trafficking ring involving hundreds of firearms, machineguns, machinegun conversion devices, and high-capacity magazines needed for fully automatic weapons. Lafontaine and Maldonado obtained firearms parts, including from Shi, a Chinese national who was admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant visa in 2022, which places him in a prohibited class of persons not legally allowed to possess firearms. Lafontaine and Maldonado assembled, manufactured, and modified semi-automatic and automatic firearms using a “ghost gunner” machine and specialized “endmill” drilling devices at a workspace on Maldonado’s property in Kissimmee. From there, Lafontaine and Maldonado, along with assistance from Batiz, sold firearms, including fully automatic weapons and machinegun conversion devices (“chips” or “buttons”) that are used to convert semi-automatic weapons into machineguns. They sold those items to illegal aliens and convicted felons such as Lopez Montanez, Rivera Robles, and Joseph Guerra of Orlando, who often brokered such transactions on behalf of other unknown customers…