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Federal prosecutors in Chicago have sharply elevated their pursuit of violent offenders and gun crimes, with the variety of firearm indictments practically tripling underneath U.S. Legal professional Andrew S. Boutros’ management, officers introduced. Boutros, joined by leaders from the FBI, ATF, DEA, and U.S. Marshals Service, stated the Northern District has skilled a dramatic rise in each firearm and general legal prosecutions in 2025.
By means of October 31, 2025, federal firearm indictments filed underneath the Challenge Secure Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative elevated 292 %, from 26 circumstances in 2024 to 102 this 12 months, the officers stated. The variety of defendants charged in these circumstances rose from 30 to 116—a 287 % improve. Total, federal legal indictments throughout all program areas jumped 45 %, from 252 final 12 months to 366 this 12 months, whereas the variety of defendants charged rose 52 %, from 325 to 494, in keeping with Boutros.
“Combating the epidemic of gun crime and violence is a nationwide precedence for this Division of Justice, and it’s a high precedence of mine,” he stated. “We are going to proceed to commit substantial assets to supporting our regulation enforcement companions and prosecuting probably the most vital violent offenders.”
Boutros stated PSN’s growth earlier this 12 months into downtown Chicago and the Chicago Transit Authority’s whole rail system represented a brand new method to addressing violence in key financial and commuter zones. The transfer marked the primary time within the nation that PSN was carried out on a mass-transit community and the primary time downtown Chicago’s monetary districts acquired the federal designation.
Firearm investigations are additionally benefiting from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ Crime Gun Intelligence Middle of Chicago (CGIC), a centralized hub the place each gun case within the Northern District is processed every day. The CGIC combines federal, state, and native regulation enforcement officers, prosecutors, and analysts to rapidly establish, hint, and prosecute offenders tied to shootings and unlawful firearm exercise.
Christopher Amon, Particular Agent-in-Cost of the ATF Chicago Area Division, stated the CGIC’s collaboration with Boutros’ workplace “has made a big impression on decreasing violent crime in Chicago,” noting that the elevated federal prosecutions guarantee violent offenders are “swiftly delivered to justice.”
Douglas S. DePodesta, Particular Agent-in-Cost of the FBI Chicago Area Workplace, stated the community of PSN companions has made communities “safer and extra well-resourced than ever.”
Boutros stated the workplace’s rising productiveness comes regardless of working with considerably fewer prosecutors than in prior years. When he took over, the workplace was brief about 50 attorneys, with the legal division’s headcount falling beneath 90 for the primary time in a long time.
“The spectacular outcomes we now have been in a position to obtain in 2025 as an workplace have been achieved with far fewer prosecutors and assets than the workplace has skilled in a long time,” Boutros stated. He added that dozens of latest assistant U.S. attorneys can be employed within the coming months to deal with increasing legal and civil caseloads. Lots of the new hires, he stated, convey “a long time of prosecutorial expertise” and can strengthen the workplace’s concentrate on violent crime and public security.
Among the many current federal firearm circumstances highlighted by prosecutors:
- Fabias L. Shipman, a convicted felon with a previous 2019 federal drug conviction, is charged with illegally possessing ammunition. Prosecutors stated Shipman opened fireplace with a gun in every hand throughout a September 29 confrontation behind the 2500 block of East 78th Avenue, killing one man and wounding one other.
- Eddie Arguelles, 20, of Wicker Park, is charged with illegally possessing a Glock 23 pistol outfitted with a conversion change, prolonged journal, and laser attachment. Prosecutors stated Arguelles livestreamed himself with the weapon on Instagram whereas at Riis Park.
- Velar “V” Mayfield, of Sauk Village, allegedly turned his house right into a mini-armory and offered firearms and ammunition throughout a collection of undercover transactions this summer season. Prosecutors stated Mayfield, who has three prior felony convictions, offered rifles, pistols, and ammunition magazines to 2 informants and an undercover federal agent. He’s charged with possessing firearms as a convicted felon.
- Alec Chisolm-Blockton, 29, who’s on parole for his position within the homicide of a 14-year-old boy in suburban St. Louis, is accused of promoting three weapons to federal informants and brokers in Chicago. Prosecutors stated an ATF informant contacted Chisolm-Blockton in June and organized to purchase two pistols. He allegedly despatched the informant images of a Springfield Hellcat priced at $700 and a Glock 48 for $800 and agreed to carry them till late June.
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