* Media advisory…

In advance of tomorrow’s sentencing for Patrick Edwards, who along with a group of nine others, has been convicted of robbing more than 100 guns from an unsecure Chicago train line, Chris Kennedy and Ra Joy will speak about the violence that plagues our communities and the access to guns that pass through Chicago’s rail yards.

They will be joined by Cook County Commissioner Jesús “Chuy” García, anti-violence advocates and families that have been affected by gun violence.

I’ve heard him talk about this before, but this event will put the issue in focus.

* Some background from an October 3rd US Attorney press release…

A federal judge today sentenced a convicted felon to ten years in prison for stealing hundreds of firearms from a cargo train on the South Side of Chicago and selling more than a dozen of them.

On April 12, 2015, ANDREW SHELTON and several acquaintances burglarized the cargo train while it was parked overnight in a railyard in Chicago’s Avalon Park neighborhood. The cargo train was en route from a Ruger factory in New Hampshire to Spokane, Wash. The thieves broke locks on a train car and walked off with approximately 111 firearms, with Shelton keeping 13 guns for himself. He quickly sold the 13 firearms on the black market.

To date, law enforcement has recovered 19 of the 111 stolen firearms at various locations and crime scenes in Chicago and the surrounding area.

* More…

A suburban Chicago mother of seven is accused of urging Facebook followers to kill a gang member-turned-FBI mole for his role in a sting that put an associate of hers behind bars on charges he tried to sell semi-automatic rifles stolen from a freight train, court documents show.

Iesha Stanciel, 38, faces federal cyberstalking charges for the threats, as well as a gun charge after she was arrested carrying a bag containing one of the brand new AR 15-type assault rifles stolen from the Chicago train that had stopped overnight at a Norfolk Southern yard on Sept. 18, 2016, according to a federal complaint examined by The Associated Press this week. […]

That 2016 theft angered residents near the South Side rail yard because it came a year after the theft of 104 Sturm, Ruger & Co. guns, which quickly fell into the hands of gangs. After the 2015 heist, aldermen sought assurances from Norfolk Southern that such thefts wouldn’t happen again.

At a sentencing hearing last week in that 2015 case, Judge John Tharp said criminals prize new guns because they’re hard to trace and he said their theft contributed to “an epidemic of violence” in Chicago. A prosecutor told the court there’s a little-known “subculture” of thieves who regularly rob trains in the nation’s busiest rail hub.

It was Stafford’s arrest that led Stanciel, just days later, to start posting the Facebook threats that included the informant’s name, court papers said.

Whew.

* These train burglaries have long been a problem. A small sampling..

* May 2014: I-Team: Assault rifles stolen from freight train in Englewood

* November 2016: 2 Investigators: Gun Thefts Continue At Chicago Railyards: Chicago Ald. Pat Dowell was so concerned about railyard gun heists that last year she wanted to hold a public hearing to question railway representatives. But she tells the 2 Investigators the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and railyard giant Norfolk Southern “strongly encouraged” her not to go public for fear she would expose serious security deficiencies. Dowell held off. Now, it’s happened again.

* January 2017: How modern day train robberies are bringing more guns to Chicago

* March 2017: Railroad thefts and guns: A deadly mix in Chicago

* March 2017: Gang Thieves Use Rail Yards As Shopping Malls, Steal Scores Of Guns