Massachusetts Man Pleads Guilty to Illegally Possessing Firearms
PORTLAND, Maine: A Woburn, Massachusetts man pleaded guilty today in federal court to being an unlawful user of controlled substances in possession of firearms, Acting U.S. Attorney Donald E. Clark announced.
According to court records, between March 6, 2020, and November 16, 2020, Sauma Brata Deb, 27, was arrested on five separate occasions in either New Hampshire or Massachusetts. During each of these arrests, drugs or drug-use paraphernalia (or both) were recovered from him. On January 29, 2021, he attempted to sell a firearm to the Kittery Trading Post. When he was arrested, two firearms were recovered from him and additional items of drug-use paraphernalia were recovered from his car. It is against federal law for unlawful users of drugs to possess firearms.
Deb faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The Maine and New Hampshire offices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Kittery Police Department investigated the case as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative.
PSN is a nationwide initiative that brings together federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement officials, prosecutors, community leaders and other stakeholders to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in a community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. PSN is coordinated by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in the 94 federal judicial districts throughout the 50 states and U.S. territories. PSN is customized to account for local violent crime problems and resources. Across all districts, PSN follows four key design elements of successful violent crime reduction initiatives: community engagement, prevention and intervention, focused and strategic enforcement, and accountability.
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