Yemassee man convicted for running a multi-state gun trafficking ring, officials say

A Yemassee man was convicted in a multi-state gun trafficking operation by the United States District Court in Connecticut after his 2021 arrest in Beaufort, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of South Carolina.

Marquis Jerome Pollard, 42, was sentenced to eight years in prison and three years of supervised release, officials said in the press release.

Quinn Mooring, 40, of New Haven Connecticut, who was Pallard’s contact in Connecticut, pleaded guilty in January 2022 to possession of a firearm by a felon. Mooring has yet to be sentenced on that charge.

In 2021, officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Task Force were told that Pollard had “used straw purchasers” to get firearms, meaning that someone else was buying them for him, in South Carolina. Pollard would then send the guns to Mooring to sell in Connecticut, officials said.

In April 2021, police posed as a buyer in Connecticut to buy a gun for $1,500. It was one of five guns bought from a Port Royal pawn shop just a month before. In May, investigators watched the person buying two more guns from the pawn shop and followed them to a restaurant in Beaufort where they met Pollard and gave them to him.

Police then tried to arrest Pollard who they say drove off.

“Pollard drove on sidewalks and over curbs during the pursuit, and was eventually apprehended in a residential neighborhood after abandoning his car and attempting to flee on foot,” officials said in the press release.

Pollard has been detained since his arrest in May 2021 in Beaufort. Three firearms were found in his vehicle, including the two that were given to him in the restaurant parking lot.

A total of 17 firearms were obtained for Pollard including five that were found by police and the three found with him when he was arrested. The remaining nine guns have not been found.