MONTICELLO – A Woodbourne man has been arrested by the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office after a six-month investigation into illegal firearms sales.
John Wallace, 48, of Ulster Heights Road in the Town of Fallsburg was arrested on Friday, February 11 after deputies and federal agents executed a search warrant at his residence.
Wallace is barred from the possession of any firearms due to a previous conviction that occurred in 2019 and is currently on supervised probation by the Sullivan County Probation Department. It is alleged that in the time since his conviction, he has continued to possess and sell multiple firearms to several people.
Recovered during the investigation was a 9mm handgun and nine AR-15 rifles, two of which had no serial numbers assigned and are commonly known as “ghost guns.”
Deputies also recovered 53 high-capacity rifle magazines.
Wallace was charged with criminal sale of a firearm, three counts of criminal possession of a weapon with previous conviction, two counts of criminal possession of an assault weapon, criminal possession of weapon for possessing a loaded AR-15 rifle, criminal possession of a weapon by possessing five or more firearms, and criminal possession of a weapon by possessing multiple large capacity ammunition feeding devices.
He was arraigned before Town of Fallsburg Court Judge Jamie Kaminski and committed to the Sullivan County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.
The Sheriff’s Office was assisted in the investigation by the Sullivan County Probation Department, Town of Fallsburg Police, Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.,
Sullivan County Sheriff Michael Schiff thanked all of the law enforcement agencies that were involved and commended the work of Sergeant Blake Starner who was the lead investigator in the case.
This arrest comes just two weeks before the implementation of new legislation aimed to combat untraceable firearms (ghost guns) from being possessed or sold in New York State.
