Firearms Trafficker Sentenced to More Than Seven Years in Federal Prison
CHICAGO — A man who illegally trafficked at least ten firearms from Georgia to Chicago has been sentenced to seven and a half years in federal prison.
Between approximately September 2020 and January 2021, defendant SCOTT TREECE, 35, of Rockford, Illinois transported at least ten firearms from Georgia to Illinois to sell to others. Because Treece was a felon during this time, he used straw purchasers to purchase these firearms, including his co-defendant Kyle Hall, 23, of Algonquin, Illinois and two other individuals living in Georgia. After Treece was arrested in this case, he threatened Hall and instructed the other straw purchasers to refrain from talking with law enforcement. Treece was arrested after selling a firearm to a confidential informant. During Treece’s arrest, law enforcement recovered an additional firearm and several extended magazines.
Treece pleaded guilty earlier this year to unlawfully dealing in firearms and possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon. On November 7, 2022, U.S. District Judge Edmund E. Chang imposed a 90-month prison sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jasmina Vajzovic argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum that although Treece had not obtained any additional convictions since his last in 2009, “the instant offense indicates he has been engaged in violent conduct and unlawful conduct related to firearms.”
Co-defendant Hall pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of knowingly transferring a firearm to a felon and is awaiting sentencing by U.S. District Judge Edmond. E. Chang.
The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Jeffrey L. Matthews, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives.
Disrupting illegal firearms trafficking is the focus of the Department of Justice’s Chicago Firearms Trafficking Strike Force. As part of the strike force, the U.S. Attorney’s Office collaborates with ATF and other federal, state, and local law enforcement partners in the Northern District of Illinois and across the country to help stem the supply of illegally trafficked firearms and identify patterns, leads, and potential suspects in violent gun crimes.
Holding firearm offenders accountable through federal prosecution is also a centerpiece of Project Safe Neighborhoods. In the Northern District of Illinois, U.S. Attorney Lausch and law enforcement partners have deployed the PSN program to attack a broad range of violent crime issues facing the district, particularly firearm offenses.
