Department of Justice

CHICAGO — A federal grand jury has indicted a convicted felon for allegedly illegally possessing more than 50 shotguns, rifles and handguns in his Chicago home.

HENRY REYES, 52, is charged with illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.  Reyes illegally possessed 30 handguns, 15 rifles, and seven shotguns on Aug. 15, 2019, according to an indictment returned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.  Law enforcement discovered the firearms during a court-authorized search of Reyes’s residence in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit previously filed in the case.  Reyes was previously convicted of murder in the Circuit Court of Cook County and he was not lawfully allowed to possess a firearm, the charges allege.

Reyes was arrested on the day of the search, and he remains detained in law enforcement custody.  Arraignment in U.S. District Court in Chicago has not yet been scheduled.

The indictment was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Timothy Jones, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; and Eddie Johnson, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.  The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward A. Liva, Jr., and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Pantoja.

Holding convicted felons accountable through federal prosecution is a centerpiece of Project Safe Neighborhoods – the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction strategy.  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, including by prosecuting individuals who illegally possess firearms.

The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.  Illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon is punishable by up to ten years in prison.  If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.

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