Soldiers indicted in Chicago firearm trafficking scheme purchased gun at Fort Campbell base store

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The I-Team has learned that there are new federal grand jury indictments against three soldiers who allegedly operated a gun pipeline between their home base of Fort Campbell in Kentucky and Chicago. The operation was discovered after a mass shooting on the southwest side last March.

In the indictment, prosecutors allege that one of the firearms in the pipeline -- a Glock 9mm pistol-- was purchased at the Fort Campbell on-base Exchange and then illegally provided to someone else.

The nine count indictment charges soldiers Brandon Miller, Jarius Brunson and Demarcus Adams with filing fraudulent federal paperwork to buy numerous guns, claiming the firearms were for their own use, when they planned to sell them in Chicago and elsewhere.

Federal investigators say the gun pipeline was uncovered during a mass shooting at a so-called pop-up party on March 26 in Chicago's Wrightwood neighborhood. Guns found on the scene of the Chicago shooting were traced to recent purchases in Kentucky and Tennessee, according to law enforcement officials. Dozens of shots were fired in the incident, which left one killed and seven wounded.

Authorities said the accused servicemen illegally sold at least 90 guns to buyers in Chicago since late 2019. As the I-Team reported last spring, at a court hearing, prosecutors revealed that the three soldiers charged were investing their gun profits to try to recruit other Army service members into the scheme.

22 year old Army soldier Brandon Miller has been described as the leader of the gun pipeline to Chicago where he is said to have connections. Attorneys representing him and the other service members have not commented on the charges. Federal prosecutors in Nashville and a U.S. Army spokesman at Fort Campbell did not comment for this report.