San Diegans charged with Arizona-to-California gun-buying schemes

A San Diego felon who repeatedly purchased handguns from an Arizona resident and drove them back home across state lines was sentenced Friday to nine years in federal prison.

Jarez Roberts, 44, was prohibited from purchasing firearms but traveled to Arizona on multiple occasions to buy guns, which prosecutors say he armed himself with while selling methamphetamine.

The investigation into Roberts and his gun source, a 38-year-old Phoenix resident Lillian Shingleton, began after police found a loaded handgun inside a trash bin in the College Grove Area, which was tracked to a firearm sale from a Glendale, Ariz., store.

Both Shingleton and Roberts pleaded guilty to various federal charges.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego, the case was among several recent prosecutions involving guns illegally sold and transported across state lines from Arizona to San Diego.

In another case, San Diego resident Jacob Gall-Carrizosa bought 11 guns in Arizona using a fake ID to claim he was an Arizona resident, then resold the guns in San Diego, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. One of those guns was later recovered by police in Tijuana, prosecutors said. Gall-Carrizosa pleaded guilty last month to transporting firearms without a federal license.

“Trafficking firearms across state lines creates a dangerous pipeline for illegal weapons,” San Diego U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said in a statement. “By bringing cases like these to ...