Melendez Sentenced To 46 Months For Illegally Selling Firearms

Neftali Melendez, 26, of Woonsocket, was sentenced today to nearly four years in federal prison, for illegally selling firearms during an undercover investigation by ATF and the Woonsocket Police Department into the trafficking of firearms in the city.

Melendez was sentenced today to 46 months, the high end of advisory federal sentencing guidelines, announced United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha; Guy N. Thomas, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF Boston Field Office; and Woonsocket Police Chief Thomas A. Carey.

U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. also ordered Melendez to serve three years of supervised release upon completion of his prison term. Melendez pleaded guilty on Sept. 27, to two counts of felon in possession of a firearm, as charged in a federal indictment returned on March 28, 2012. No plea deal was filed in this matter.

At the time of his guilty plea, Melendez admitted to the court that on June 27, 2011, he sold a .25 caliber, semi-automatic pistol for $550 dollars; and on Aug. 18, 2011, he sold a .38 caliber revolver and ammunition for $800 dollars. Both transactions were electronically recorded by law enforcement agents and officers.

Melendez has been detained since his arrest on March 29, 2011. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard W. Rose.