WASHINGTON — Two Richmond residents and one Maryland man have been indicted on federal charges for conspiring to traffic firearms purchased from licensed dealers in Virginia to individuals prohibited from owning guns, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Moniqua Jefferson, 31, and Valentino Hall, 28, both of Richmond, along with Derrick Boyd Jr., 32, of Capitol Heights, Maryland, were arrested at their homes and made their initial court appearances in the District of Columbia. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh ordered the defendants held pending a detention hearing scheduled for Thursday.
The indictment, unsealed in the District of Columbia, alleges that from September 2022 through September 2024, Jefferson and Hall purchased over 22 firearms from licensed retailers in the Richmond area. The pair then allegedly transferred those weapons to individuals barred from legally owning guns, including minors and convicted offenders, sometimes for cash.
According to the indictment, Hall and Jefferson communicated regularly with customers seeking to circumvent federal firearms laws. On multiple occasions, they allegedly bought firearms and delivered them to co-conspirators, including Boyd, in exchange for payment. In one instance, Boyd accompanied Jefferson to a licensed Richmond firearms retailer where she purchased a Ruger handgun. Boyd later transferred funds to Jefferson totaling more than the retail price of the weapon.
The charges further detail that on June 6, 2024, Jefferson bought a firearm that was recovered just over two weeks later from an underage individual in Washington, D.C. Additional firearms purchased by the defendants were later seized in Maryland and the District from individuals who could not legally possess them.
The case is being prosecuted under the Make D.C. Safe Again initiative, a federal law enforcement program aimed at curbing gun violence and enforcing firearm-related offenses in the nation’s capital.
All three defendants face charges related to conspiracy to traffic firearms and remain in custody pending further proceedings.