On December 1, 2020, federal agents knocked on an apartment door looking for an Atlanta-area rapper — a prime suspect in a months-long investigation into a ring that sold guns from Georgia to Philadelphia.
Fredrick Norman — also known as “Slowkey Fred” — wasn’t there that December day, but the woman who answered the door, Brianna Walker, texted Norman and warned him that the agents were there, according to a search warrant affidavit .
“Don’t say nun,” federal agents wrote that he responded. “Just say you sold it at a gun show or sum.”
For months, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents had been building a case against Norman, Walker and two other suspects. Agents eventually traced nearly 300 firearms purchased from dozens of gun dealers in Georgia to suspects after some were found at crime scenes and in possession of convicted felons in Philadelphia, according to records and interviews with federal law enforcement agencies.
“We know these weapons are being used in crimes,” said Eric Degree, the ATF’s Philadelphia office deputy special counsel.
The federal investigation has expanded to include 11 suspects in Georgia and Pennsylvania, all charged with conspiracy. Kenneth Burgos, 23, and Edwin Burgos, 29 – brothers accused of facilitating sales in Pennsylvania – are also charged with dealing in firearms without a license, officials said.
In a 2020 interview with ATF agents at the Atlanta home, Walker admitted to buying 50 to 60 guns, according to the affidavit, to sell without a dealer’s license — a violation of federal law. According to federal records, Norman admitted to buying more than 100.
Norman told NBC News in an interview that he doesn’t remember what he said to ATF in 2020. The 25-year-old Villa Rica resident also declined to discuss the charges against him and whether he filed a plea. But he described himself as a “gun enthusiast,” an interest he says began when he attended his first gun show in early 2020 — just months before prosecutors said he started straw buying.
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“I never knew how open guns were in Georgia,” Norman said. “The whole process upset me. You go in and there’s a policeman sitting over there. And they don’t check if you have ID or a driver’s license or if you’re a criminal or nothing.”
As of Friday, no attorney was listed for nine defendants named in the indictment, most of whom were listed in court filings as charges in federal custody and who could not be reached for comment. A lawyer for Edwin Burgos declined to comment. An attorney for another defendant, Roselmy Rodriguez, did not respond to requests for comment. Both Burgos and Rodriguez have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Officials said the ring operated a classic straw-buying program, where someone buys a gun for someone else who typically can’t legally buy one or doesn’t want to leave a paper trail. Between June and December 2020, the Georgia defendants allegedly bought guns on an almost daily basis from stores including Academy Sports, Adventure Outdoors and a number of pawnshops and then took them to Pennsylvania, according to the 60-page indictment, which was unsealed last month.
The indictment says agents found 4,000 rounds of ammunition and 183 empty gun cases at the Georgia home they searched, most of which officers traced to guns purchased by the defendants.
Degree said that while straw shopping programs are common, they tend to be smaller. For example, someone might recruit a relative or friend to buy a handful of guns. He described the charges against Norman, the Burgos brothers and their co-defendants as a “grand arms trafficking scheme”.
According to the indictment, Norman directed the plan in Georgia while the Burgos brothers directed it in Philadelphia. Prosecutors said in a separate court filing that Edwin Burgos admitted to brokering sales during an interview with ATF.
Guns tracked down by federal agents investigating the case were recovered by criminals and found abandoned at crime scenes, according to court records and interviews — some just days after they were purchased.
After two years of record gun violence in Philadelphia, officials fear more guns from this case could fall into the wrong hands.
“I’m sure we didn’t recover them all,” Degree said. “There are still firearms that were bought by these individuals and are most likely still on the streets.”
Norman said he wants to get something positive out of the situation he’s in and keep pursuing his music. He declined to comment when asked about people who could be injured by the guns, which prosecutors say he helped with traffic. But he said he is not a violent person.
“I care about people and I care about people being harmed,” he said. “Because I’m not an advocate of violence.”
Charges in cases of buying straws can look administrative, Degree said — they’re on a form and selling guns without a license. But he said these types of schemes are far more than just paperwork crimes.
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Burgos brothers face a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted, while the other nine defendants each face a maximum statutory sentence of five years if convicted.