Philadelphia – A suburban police department resold hundreds of confiscated and surrendered firearms to gun shops, including one dealer now in prison for selling weapons to felons, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Another of the shops lost its license last summer after authorities linked guns sold there to 19 homicides, including the killing of a Philadelphia police officer, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Upper Darby police stopped the resale practice after federal agents raided a shop in 2005 and traced an illegal sawed-off shotgun back to the department.
“This involves hundreds of guns,” retired police detective Ray Britt said.
“Lots of people knew it was happening, and some officers tried to stop it. But it went on for years,” Britt said.
Though it is legal for police departments in Pennsylvania and many other states to sell confiscated firearms to federally licensed gun shops, several large law-enforcement agencies in the Philadelphia region say it is a bad idea.
Michael Chitwood, who became chief of the 127-member Upper Darby force in August 2005, said he was cooperating with an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
