Three men in Chicago face federal gun crime charges in conjunction with Operation Legend, CBS Chicago reports. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District Of Illinois, they are the first to be charged under the federal initiative.
President Trump and other officials on Wednesday formally announced the deployment of “hundreds” of federal agents to fight crime in Chicago as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Legend.
Darryl Collins, 30, of Dolton, is charged with one count of illegal possession of ammunition by a convicted felon. Romeo Holloway, 21, of Chicago, is charged with one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Collins and Holloway were previously convicted of criminal felonies and were not lawfully allowed to possess a firearm or ammunition. Darryl Phillips, 22, of Chicago, is charged with one count of illegal possession of a machine gun.
The three are being held in federal custody.
Officials described Operation Legend as “a sustained, systematic and coordinated law enforcement initiative in which federal law enforcement agencies work in conjunction with state and local law enforcement officials to fight violent crime.”
Holloway was arrested Tuesday night by federal and local law enforcement officers for illegally possessing a loaded handgun in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. According to charges, the gun had 10 rounds of live ammunition and had a bullet in the chamber.
Phillips was arrested Wednesday morning by federal and local law enforcement officers executing a court-authorized search warrant also in the East Garfield Park. Officers discovered a semiautomatic handgun in a bedroom.
An ATF special agent reviewed the firearm and determined it was equipped with an auto-sear device, also known as a “switch,” which transformed the firearm into a machine gun capable of automatically shooting more than one shot without manually reloading.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who earlier had threatened to go to court to block President Trump from deploying unnamed federal agents in Chicago without her permission, said she supports the expansion of Operation Legend, noting the additional agents coming to Chicago will be overseen by John R. Lausch Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Northern District Of Illinois and a friend of Lightfoot’s for more than 20 years.
Lightfoot herself is a former federal prosecutor.