A man from Middlesex County has been sentenced to 11 years in state prison for illegally transporting handguns into New Jersey to sell them.

33-year-old Barrett R. Griffin III of North Brunswick pleaded guilty this past summer to second-degree transporting firearms into the state for unlawful sale or transfer and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

Acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin says the conviction stems from an investigation by the New Jersey State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

During the course of the investigation, a motor vehicle stop was made on the car Griffin was driving on the New Jersey Turnpike in Mount Laurel, NJ on February 7, 2022. Following a search of the vehicle, detectives seized five handguns, one assault rifle, and four large capacity ammunition magazines from the vehicle’s trunk.

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Platkin said in a statement,

Keeping illegal weapons out of our state and off our streets is paramount to public safety. We are aggressively targeting those responsible for the proliferation of guns and gun violence in our communities, and that includes gun traffickers who illegally transport weapons into our state and put them in the hands of criminals.

Griffin must serve nearly seven years of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

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