Worcester Man Sentenced for Possession of Stolen Firearm and Lying to Firearm Dealers
BOSTON – A Worcester man was sentenced on Friday, Sept. 13, 2019, in federal court in Worcester for lying to federal firearms dealers and for possession of a stolen firearm.
Ruben Ramos, 24, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy S. Hillman to 13 months in prison and three years of supervised release. In March 2019, Ramos pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements during the purchase of a firearm, five counts of making false statements in records required to be maintained by a federal firearm dealer, and one count of possession of a stolen firearm.
In December 2016, Worcester Police issued Ramos, an employee of the U.S. Postal Service and member of the U.S. Army National Guard, a license to possess firearms. From May 2017 through May 2018, Ramos purchased at least 16 firearms, including 14 pistols and two rifles. On at least five occasions, from March 2018 through May 2018, Ramos knowingly provided a false address to the firearms dealers from whom he purchased seven firearms.
In June 2018, Ramos admitted to federal investigators that he only possessed six of the 16 guns that he purchased over the previous 12 months. Ramos admitted to investigators that he lied to firearms dealers on two occasions in May 2018, when he acted as a “straw buyer,” by claiming that he was buying the gun for himself when, in fact, he was buying the guns on behalf of another person. Additionally, in June 2018, investigators also found a Beretta 9 mm pistol in Ramos’s residence that was the property of the Army National Guard. Ramos admitted that he stole the pistol from the weapons vault at the Army National Guard facility on Plantation Street in Worcester.
United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Kelly Brady, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives, Boston Field Division; and Worcester Police Chief Steven Sargent made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg A. Friedholm of Lelling’s Worcester Branch Office is prosecuting the case.
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