Upper Dublin man held for trial on gun trafficking charges

NORRISTOWN — An Upper Dublin Township man must answer to charges in Montgomery County Court that he purchased 15 guns using straw purchase schemes and illegally sold them to others.

Tamir Jonathan Hartsock, 24, of the 300 block of Logan Avenue, was ordered to stand trial, after he waived his preliminary hearing on charges of corrupt organizations, unlawful sale or transfer of firearms, unsworn falsification and criminal use of a communication facility in connection with alleged incidents that occurred between September 2020 and December 2022.

Hartsock now faces a Nov. 15 formal arraignment hearing on the charges in county court. After that hearing, a county judge will schedule Hartsock’s trial date.

Hartsock remains in the county jail in lieu of $500,000 cash bail while awaiting trial.

At the time of Hartsock’s arrest in May, District Attorney Kevin R. Steele alleged Hartsock put “the mechanism of death” on the streets by putting guns in the hands of violent criminals. Authorities alleged some of the guns were linked to violent crimes, including homicides in Philadelphia.

Hartsock was taken into custody on May 2 at the convenience store at which he worked on Limekiln Pike in Cheltenham Township, according to authorities.

The investigation began in April 2023 when the county detective bureau’s Violent Crime Unit and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives received information regarding numerous firearms purchases by Hartsock that were suspected of being straw purchases.

A straw purchase occurs when a person with a clean background purchases firearms on behalf of another person to conceal the true ownership of the firearm. Those who are unable to legally purchase firearms include convicted felons, domestic violence offenders, juveniles and mentally ill individuals.

Detectives determined Hartsock purchased 15 firearms, including Glock .40-caliber and Ruger .380-caliber handguns, from three federally-licensed firearms dealers in Horsham, Willow Grove and Abington between September 2020 and December 2022, according to the criminal complaint filed by county Detective James B. Kemm.

Hartsock did not have a criminal record and turned 21 years old on Aug. 12, 2020, making him legally able to purchase firearms.

Prosecutors alleged Hartsock’s straw purchasing began in September 2020 immediately after he turned 21 and continued buying guns through December 2022. At one point, Hartsock allegedly purchased seven handguns in a four-month period.

“The purpose of this corrupt organization was to illegally obtain and distribute numerous firearms to others,” Kemm alleged in the arrest affidavit. “This gun trafficking organization armed their members and provided the firearms to others, some of which were precluded from legally obtaining or possessing a firearm.”

Of the 15 firearms purchased by Hartsock, law enforcement had recovered only four of the weapons at the time of Hartsock’s arrest.

The four guns that were recovered were subsequently linked to various crimes in Philadelphia, including several shootings and a triple homicide, according to investigators.

According to court documents, a Glock Model G27 .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun, the tenth firearm purchased by Hartsock in February 2021, was recovered by Philadelphia police on April 28, 2023, at the scene of a triple homicide on Palmetto Street. A bullet retrieved from one of the homicide victims was entered into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), which analyzes fired cartridge casings, and confirmed that the bullet came from the Glock that had been purchased by Hartsock, according to the criminal complaint. The NIBIN system was acquired by Montgomery County earlier this year.

A NIBIN review also linked the same gun to a shooting two months earlier, on Jan. 23, 2023, on West Indian Lane in Philadelphia, authorities alleged.

The first firearm purchased by Hartsock on Sept. 9, 2020, a Glock Model 22 .40-caliber handgun, was recovered by Philadelphia police on Sept. 6, 2022, after police heard about 50 gunshots fired in the Carlisle Street area. Police stopped a fleeing vehicle and apprehended three occupants, one of whom allegedly was in possession of the Glock. Fired cartridge casings from that gun were analyzed by the NIBIN system, which generated leads connecting the gun to four violent crimes in Philadelphia, including two shootings and two homicides, authorities alleged.

Two other guns purchased by Hartsock also were recovered – one on June 26, 2021, on a driver during a DUI checkpoint in Philadelphia and one on Oct. 7, 2022, during a traffic stop by Marple Township police in Delaware County during which both the driver and passenger were charged with firearms offenses, according to authorities.

Authorities said a majority of Hartsock’s gun purchases were conducted online and the guns were shipped to a federally licensed firearms dealer in the county where Hartsock had to complete the required forms and background check paperwork in order to complete the transactions.

The ATF, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, the Upper Dublin Township Police Department, the Marple Township Police Department and the Philadelphia Police Department assisted Montgomery County detectives during the investigation.