Department of Justice

PORTLAND, Maine — A Brockton, Massachusetts man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Portland for conspiring to violate federal firearms laws.

U.S District Judge Nancy Torresen sentenced Antoine Montrond, 23, to a year plus one day in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Montrond pleaded guilty on April 26.

According to court records, in January 2020, Montrond and a co-conspirator used a straw purchaser to buy two firearms from a store in Kittery. The purchaser falsely indicated they were the true purchaser of the firearms when in fact they were buying them for Montrond and his co-conspirator. In May 2020, police recovered one of the firearms, a Glock Model 23 .40 caliber pistol, from Montrond during a traffic stop. In total, Montrond’s co-conspirators succeeded in illegally straw purchasing seven firearms; they were previously sentenced by Judge Torresen for their respective roles in the scheme.   

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case.

A straw purchase is an illegal firearm purchase where the actual buyer of the gun, being unable to pass the required federal background check or desiring to not have his or her name associated with the transaction, uses a proxy buyer who can pass the required background check to purchase the firearm for him/her.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities and measuring the results. To learn more information about Project Safe Neighborhood, visit www.justice.gov/psn.

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