A Bangor man was sentenced today in federal court in Boston to two years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for illegally buying guns for a Massachusetts man.
Traveyon Richardson, 26, of Bangor, Maine, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to straw purchase firearms and one count of trafficking of firearms. He was indicted in July 2023 along with Breon Stroup, of Fall River, Massachusetts, for whom Richardson bought the guns.
On Sept. 26, 2022, Richardson sent Stroup a message through Snapchat with a link to handguns available to buy at Maine Military Supply in Holden. Stroup responded with links to two of the guns, a silver Ruger Wrangler and a Taurus Model G3C, and offered to send $650 if Richardson could buy them, according to the indictment.
Stroup then sent the money via CashApp with the note “help with rent.”
Stroup was prohibited from possessing a gun, but Richardson bought the guns for him, falsely checking a box stating he was the actual buyer of the firearms and was not buying them for someone else, per the indictment.
On Oct. 2, 2022, Richardson drove the guns to Massachusetts and had a phone call with Stroup, who was incarcerated at the Bristol County Jail and House of Correction, in which the two talked about deleting social media and iCloud accounts. It’s unclear from the indictment whether Richardson ever delivered the guns to Stroup.
