Three people from the DMV were detained on Wednesday for conspiring to traffic weapons out of Virginia.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the District of Columbia announced that 31-year-old Moniqua Jefferson and 28-year-old Valentino Hall of Richmond, Va., as well as 32-year-old Derrick Boyd Jr. of Capitol Heights, Md., were arrested at their homes as part of the Make D.C. Safe Again campaign.
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Prosecutors said that from September 2022 to September 2024, Jefferson and Hall would discover customers who were forbidden from owning a gun, buy a handgun in the Richmond region, and then resell or transfer the guns to others.
Boyd was one of the people who acquired such a rifle.
According to the indictment, on May 31, 2024, and June 1, 2024, Hall and Jefferson allegedly coordinated with another co-conspirator to purchase a pistol. Thirty days later, officials allegedly discovered the individual in possession of the gun that Hall and Jefferson had purchased.
Then, on June 6, 2024, Jefferson allegedly purchased another gun from a shop in Richmond. The USAO reports that authorities seized this gun from an individual in the District just 17 days later. That person with the gun was under the age of 21 and hence could not legally own a firearm.
The USAO stated that between August 14, 2024, and August 15, 2024, Boyd, Hall, and Jefferson discussed obtaining a gun. Just one day later, Boyd and Jefferson visited a licensed store in Richmond, where Jefferson purchased the rifle.
On August 16, 2024, Boyd wired Jefferson a payment of $103.01 more than the price of the rifle they had bought.
According to officials, Jefferson and Hall charged individuals $100 to obtain firearms.
The USAO stated that the last case occurred on September 11, 2024. Together, Jefferson, Hall, and a third individual, also prohibited by law from firearm possession, traveled to Richmond. The following day, the trio returned to the city’s firearm dealership, where Jefferson purchased two of the same rifles. Hall later compensated Jefferson for roughly the cost of the rifles.
Prosecutors allege that Hall and Jefferson purchased more than 22 weapons between August 2022 and May 2025. Five of these guns were confiscated by law enforcement in Maryland and Washington, D.C., from people who were not permitted to carry or own them.
The trio will be imprisoned until their detention hearing on July 17.
