Pennsauken's Eric Reed Admits to Illegal Gun Dealing

A Pennsauken man faces more than a decade in prison after he admitted to being an illegal arms dealer in federal court in Camden Monday, pleading guilty to charges of dealing firearms without a license and transferring a firearm to a previously convicted felon.

Eric J. Reed, 44, admitted to buying 14 guns from various Pennsylvania gun shops and gun shows, obliterating their serial numbers and transferring them to his nephew, Ammie “Beav” Steward, 37, a convicted felon who served prison time for manslaughter, according to court documents.

The purchases took place between May 2012 and Aug. 15, 2012, according to court documents, after Reed obtained a fraudulent Pennsylvania driver’s license. Most of the guns were 9mm handguns, but Reed acquired two Intratec TEC-DC9s—previously banned under the federal assault weapons ban—and two Intratec AB-10s, all semi-automatic pistols, as well as a WASR 10/63 rifle, a Romanian variant of the Soviet AKM assault rifle.

Reed admitted to wiping out the serial numbers with a power tool, then moving them to Steward for resale. Steward sold all the guns, seven of which had high-capacity magazines and one of which came with a bayonet, to a witness cooperating with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), according to court documents.

In one other case, court documents indicate Reed passed a Kel Tec PLR-16 long-range pistol and a box of ammunition to Steward for resale.

All 14 guns were confiscated by law enforcement.

Reed faces up to 10 years on the transfer of a weapon to a convicted felon charge, and up to five years for the illegal firearms dealing charge, and up to a $250,000 fine on each charge. His sentencing, in front of U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb is scheduled for April 22.

Steward previously pleaded guilty to dealing one count of dealing firearms without a license and one count of possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon, and will be sentenced March 25.