United States Drug Enforcement Administration

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - - Kinmonte Markell Brown, 28, and Dennis Wells, 24, of Greenville, North Carolina, were sentenced in U.S. District Court in Providence today for trafficking more than a dozen firearms from North Carolina into Providence between November 2014 and January 2015.

Kinmonte Brown was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison, and Dennis Wells was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison. Both defendants have also been ordered to serve three years supervised release upon completion of their prison terms. Brown and Wells pleaded guilty on September 18, 2015, to conspiracy to deal firearms without a license, dealing firearms without a license, being felons in possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

The sentences, imposed by U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith, are announced by Michael J. Ferguson Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England, United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin, Daniel J. Kumor, Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Field Divisionof ATF, and Providence Police Chief Colonel Hugh T. Clements, Jr.

Information that led to the arrest of Brown and Wells in February 2015, and the interruption of the flow of firearms from North Carolina to an apartment in the Hartford Park neighborhood was developed as a result of the Rhode Island Urban Violent Crime Initiative - a wide-ranging collaboration of local, state and federal law enforcement, and federal and state prosecutors who are targeting violent crime and violent criminals in urban neighborhoods of Rhode Island.  In late 2013, the Initiative began targeting the distribution of heroin and crack cocaine in Providence, and the importation of firearms onto the streets of Providence. Simultaneously, and in close coordination, the FBI’s Safe Street Task Force and Providence Police began targeting gang members and associates engaged in violent crime, including gun crimes, in Providence.  Information gathered during these investigations led to a separate investigation by DEA, ATF, Providence Police, and state and federal prosecutors, which resulted in the interruption of the flow of illegal firearms into Providence from Greenville, North Carolina, and the arrest of Kinmonte Brown and Dennis Wells.

According to information presented to the court, beginning in late November 2014, and continuing through January 2015, a person working at the direction of DEA began a series of negotiations with Brown and Wells for a shipment and purchase of illegal firearms. The ongoing negotiations led to a series of sales and the delivery of a total of 15 illegal firearms and ammunition shipped from North Carolina to Providence by Brown and Wells. Each time firearms were delivered they were quickly secured by law enforcement.  On January 31, 2015, as previously arranged by a person working at the direction of DEA, Brown and Wells drove to Rhode Island from North Carolina to sell and deliver seven firearms, including a .357 magnum revolver with an obliterated serial number, a .38 caliber handgun and several shotguns and rifles. Browns and Wells were detained moments after they delivered the firearms.