(Steven Hirsch)
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A quarter of Manhattan’s gun-possession defendants are 18 or younger, a grim statistic shared by prosecutors yesterday as they announced the arraignment of a weaponry kingpin who’s just 20 years old.
Of the 240 defendants prosecuted this year for allegedly possessing loaded weapons, 58 — or 24 percent — are high-school age or younger, said Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr.
“These are young men who should be in school, not with guns in their hands,” Vance said, addressing reporters from behind a table laden with 25 shotguns, revolvers and semi-automatics.
The weapons were all bought at great risk by an anonymous undercover for a total of $25,000, authorities said. The alleged seller, Juan Rivas, was barely out of his teens.
“This is probably the most dangerous work in all of law enforcement,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said of the investigation, crediting the Firearms Investigation Unit.
Rivas, of Yonkers, was barely out of his teens, but had turned his drug business into a lucrative “one-stop shopping” operation for drugs and guns of any kind, Kelly said.
Rivas bought guns on the street, then turned around and sold them on the street, often at a three-times mark-up, Kelly said. His dealing was centered in The Bronx, Washington Heights, and Yonkers.
“This was a very brazen dealer,” he said. “All the guns were used. Some were defaced,” meaning attempts had been made to remove their serial numbers. “And half of them were delivered loaded.
“One thing we do know — we know they were headed for the hands of criminals,” the police commissioner said.
Arrested on gun-sale and possession charges along with Rivas were his girlfriend, Monica Amador, 21, of Yonkers, and Rivas’ half brother, Emmanuel Agesta, 30, of The Bronx