NORRISTOWN — A Delaware woman was sent to jail for participating in a multi-county gun trafficking organization that relied heavily on straw purchase schemes.
Talani Janelle Ewell, 23, of New Castle, Del., was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 11½ to 23 months in the county jail after she pleaded guilty to charges of corrupt organizations, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, making materially false written statements, sales to ineligible transferee, criminal use of a communication facility and conspiracy in connection with the gun trafficking network that operated in Montgomery, Berks, Bucks, Lancaster and Philadelphia counties between June 2019 and February 2021.
Ewell is eligible for the jail’s work release program while serving the period of incarceration.
Judge Wendy G. Rothstein also ordered Ewell to complete two years’ probation following parole, meaning Ewell will be under court supervision for about four years.
Ewell also must complete 200 hours of community service and forfeit any weapons she had to county detectives.
Assistant District Attorney Samantha Arena prosecuted the case. Defense lawyer R. Emmett Madden represented Ewell.
Ewell was one of 14 people charged in February 2021 for roles in the gun trafficking organization. Prosecutors alleged the network illegally obtained and resold a total of 43 firearms using straw purchase schemes in the five-county area, putting guns in the hands of people who are not allowed by law to buy their own guns. Only 13 of the 43 guns have been recovered to date.
A straw purchase occurs when someone who is legally allowed to purchase a firearm purchases one and then gives it illegally to someone who is not permitted to purchase that firearm.
Several others involved in the organization previously pleaded guilty, admitting to their roles as leaders of the organization or as straw purchasers.
Alexander Aaron Smith, 22, of the 3000 block of Jolly Road, Plymouth Township, who authorities said played a lead role in the organization, previously was sentenced to 18 to 36 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to corrupt organizations and related charges.
Daveese Smith, 23, formerly of the 800 block of Smith Street, Norristown, who prosecutors described as another “mastermind” behind the organization, previously was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in state prison after pleading guilty to corrupt organizations and weapons-related offenses.
The investigation began in 2020 when detectives with the county’s Violent Crime Unit began tracking the multiple purchases of firearms by some of the conspirators through the state’s Electronic Record of Sale (EROS) system and by reviewing state and federal gun purchase paperwork at gun stores. Detectives also used surveillance, information from law enforcement agencies, cellphone data and social media analysis to identify the suspects.
“One illegal purchasing spree conducted by members of this organization yielded nine handguns in eight days,” according to a criminal complaint filed by county Detective Jeffrey Koch, Montgomery Township Detective Todd Walter and state police Trooper Brian Kedra. “The purpose of this corrupt organization was to illegally obtain and distribute numerous firearms to others.”
The investigation was led by the Montgomery County Detective Bureau’s Violent Crime Unit, Montgomery Township Police Department, Pennsylvania State Police and the Plymouth Township Police Department, along with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Norristown Police Department, FBI, Bucks and Montgomery County Safe Streets Task Force, Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General’s Gun Violence Task Force, Pottstown Police Department, Hatfield Township Police Department and Berks County Detectives.
