SCRANTON – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Crystal Hughes, age 37, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion to one year of probation for making false statements in order to purchase a firearm from a federally licensed firearms dealer.
According to Acting United States Attorney Bruce D. Bandler, Hughes pleaded guilty to making false statements on April 30, 2020, to a Luzerne County federally licensed firearms dealer in order to purchase a pistol. The false statement related to the fact that she was not buying the pistol for herself, but on behalf of another person.
The matter was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the Kingston Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney James Buchanan prosecuted the case.
This case is being prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
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