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http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-02-17/news/ct-met-guns-gangs-20130217_1_levaine-tanksley-gun-laws-gun-trafficker
Federal case outlines how guns made their way from Indiana to Chicago
Gang member got weapons from college student who went on shopping sprees across state line, investigators say
February 17, 2013|By Annie Sweeney and Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune reporters
"As he sold four handguns in a South Side parking lot last year, Levaine Tanksley boasted to his customer that there were plenty more illicit weapons available, investigators say.
"Twenty-five more in four hours," Tanksley told his customer, who was secretly working for law enforcement and recording the conversation. "Give me $5,000 and you can put your order in then. I'll get you whatever, give me a list."
As Tanksley, who police say has ties to a Chicago street gang, made his sales pitch, David Lewisbey was stocking up on more weapons at a gun show 40 miles away in Crown Point, Ind., one of several trips he made across the state border and back in little more than a day, according to federal authorities. Five hours later, Lewisbey, an unlikely gun trafficker then enrolled in college, was back in Chicago as Tanksley made good on his promise and sold the informant nine more guns, authorities allege.
A federal indictment charges the two with illegally selling 43 firearms to the government informant in just under 26 hours, a volume made possible by gun shows and less restrictive state laws in Indiana, by far the No. 1 source of out-of-state guns used in crimes in Cook County. Private gun sales in Indiana don't require background checks, a waiting period or even a record of the transaction.
The scheme exposed by law enforcement illustrates the tidal wave of illegal guns confronting Chicago police as they battle surging numbers of homicides and shootings. With the country poised to respond to gun violence stretching from a first-grade classroom in Newtown, Conn., to Harsh Park on Chicago's South Side, allegations of the duo's lucrative enterprise provide a textbook example of how criminals can exploit existing gun laws to put society's most vulnerable at even greater risk.
"(Lewisbey) would go travel to Indiana, to these gun shows where he would load up literally a duffel bag, go from table to table paying in cash, large amounts of cash … before returning right into the worst neighborhoods of Chicago," Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Parente said at a recent detention hearing in federal court. "He would sell them literally in the back alley and on the side streets."
'An arms bazaar'
K's Merchandise, a big-box department store on a busy commercial strip outside Fort Wayne, Ind., has been shut for sometime. But on a recent Friday, a crowd swelled inside as shoppers slowly browsed hundreds of tables under bright fluorescent lights.
Gone were jewelry cases and electronics. Instead, spit-shined Sig Sauers, Glocks, Berettas and Rugers were spread across tables in neat rows. For collectors, there were novelties like an 1881 French pistol, Dirty Harry-style .44 Magnums and a Browning small enough to tuck into a palm. Rifles were perched on racks with care. One man walked the floor with an AR-15 slung on his back, a white flag poking out of the barrel offering it up for sale.
Some customers gripped the handguns for a feel and chatted with friendly, folksy sellers. Families strolled among the mostly male crowd, and there was a gathering space in the back to grab coffee, a chocolate bar or a hot dog..."
