A Canarsie man pled guilty on Aug. 31 to sneaking more than 100 guns — including 20 assault weapons — into Brooklyn from Georgia and Pennsylvania and selling them to undercover cops.
Michael Bassier, 32, knew what he was doing was against the law — and even admitted so before his 2015 arrest, according to taped conversations used as evidence against him.
“I’m selling them the right way and the wrong way. When I’m out of state, like in Atlanta and Georgia and all that, it’s all legal, but New York, it’s completely illegal. So when I bring s— up here and sell it up here, that’s illegal,” Bassier said in police-intercepted phone conversation.
Bassier admitted to making 12 trips to Georgia, where he paid people to purchase the guns legally before he secreted them back to Brooklyn aboard buses, according to information from District Attorney Ken Thompson. He made six similar trips to Pennsylvania and brought weapons back in a rented car.
Bassier and accomplices sold the guns in a parking lot at the corner of Rockaway Parkway and Avenue M, according to Thompson’s office.
Police arrested Bassier and seven others — including Brooklynites from Canarsie, Crown Heights, and Prospect Lefferts Gardens — as part of an alleged gun-running ring in October last year.
Accomplice Anthony Jackson of Crown Heights pled guilty to fourth-degree conspiracy and was sentenced to one year in jail.
Bassier’s sentencing is Sept. 18, and he faces a likely 17 years behind bars, according to Thompson.
