Former Fort Drum Soldier to Serve 24 Months in Federal Prison for Burglarizing North Country Firearms Dealers
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Devin Diggs, 21, a former U.S. Army solider previously stationed at Fort Drum, New York, was sentenced today to serve 24 months in federal prison for the burglaries of two federally licensed firearms dealers in Northern New York, announced Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon and John B. DeVito, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
As part of his previous guilty plea, Diggs admitted to stealing five (5) long guns during the burglary of a licensed federal firearms dealer in Gouverneur, New York, on September 14, 2019, and to the burglary of a second licensed federal firearms dealer in De Kalb Junction, New York, on September 29, 2019 during which five (5) handguns were stolen. All stolen firearms were recovered during the investigation of these crimes. Diggs also admitted to knowingly possessing stolen firearms taken during those burglaries in his barracks at Fort Drum. Diggs’s co-defendant, Rian Patterson, was sentenced to serve 30 months in prison on September 29, 2020.
In addition to his term of imprisonment, the court also sentenced Diggs to serve three (3) years of post-imprisonment supervised release and ordered him to pay a restitution to the victims.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the U.S Army Criminal Investigation Division (ARMY CID), the St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department, and the New York State Police, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Sutcliffe.
This case was brought pursuant to Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
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