HARFORD COUNTY MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO GUN CHARGES

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran announces that Gregory Andrew Pollom of the 200 block of Maple Wreath Court in Abingdon, entered a guilty plea yesterday in Harford County Circuit Court before Judge Stephen M. Waldron. Pollom pled guilty to one count of illegal purchase of a regulated firearm. Sentencing is set for November 18, 2005.

Curran’s Firearms Trafficking Unit received information from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) that a German gun manufacturer was selling guns illegally over the internet and that one of those sales was to Gregory Pollom. A Maryland State Trooper and a Task Force Officer from ATF interviewed Pollom who admitted that he had purchased a Walter P22 semiautomatic handgun over the internet from the German manufacturer. The trooper recovered the gun and Pollom was charged with illegal possession of a regulated firearm and illegal transfer of a regulated firearm. He entered a plea to the illegal transfer count (which is considered an illegal purchase.) The possible penalty is five years in a jail and/or a $10,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the Maryland State Police Firearms Enforcement Section and the ATF. The case was prosecuted by the Firearms Trafficking Unit of the Office of the Attorney General which is funded by a grant from the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention.

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