BOSTON – A Lowell man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to illegal firearms sales.
Elwood Cortes-Navedo, 26, pleaded guilty to engaging in the business of dealing in firearms without a license. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani scheduled sentencing for June 3, 2022. Cortes-Navedo was arrested and charged by criminal complaint in April 2019 and subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury in December 2020.
On Feb. 6, 2019, Cortes-Navedo sold a Taurus, PT-22, .22LR pistol manufactured outside of Massachusetts to cooperating witnesses in the parking lot of a public swimming pool in Lowell. On Feb. 14, 2019, in his residence parking lot, Cortes-Navedo sold a Springfield Armory, XD-9 subcompact, 9mm pistol with an obliterated serial number and 12 rounds of ammunition to cooperating witnesses.
United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; James Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Boston Field Division; Matthew B. Millhollin, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston; and Colonel Christopher Mason, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, made the announcement today. Special assistance in the investigation was provided by the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office and the Chelsea, Lowell, Malden, Marlborough, Somerville and Weymouth Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Crowley and Timothy Moran of Rollins’ Organized Crime & Gang Unit are prosecuting the case.