Jerry Antonio Baine
Pleaded guilty. Baine pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in the firearms business without a license, an offense carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison. He has not yet been sentenced; sentencing is scheduled for March 5, 2027.
Introduction
Jerry Antonio Baine, a/k/a “Bank 3x,” 23, of Durham, North Carolina, is a gun broker who pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell firearms without a license as part of a pipeline that moved guns purchased in North Carolina into the hands of resellers in Buffalo, New York — where at least two of the guns later surfaced in separate criminal investigations . U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced the plea, which came after a conspiracy spanning March 2023 through June 23, 2025 with four co-conspirators . Baine’s offense carries a five-year statutory maximum, with sentencing set for March 5, 2027, before U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo .
Background Information
Baine conspired with Hassain Humphrey, Keishawn Turner, Jylin Woods, and Benjamin Martin to illegally sell firearms . During the conspiracy, Baine sent Humphrey photographs of approximately 19 firearms — several of them privately manufactured firearms bearing no serial number, the so-called ghost guns — indicated that the firearms were for sale, and discussed sale prices with Humphrey; on one occasion he objected that a price Humphrey proposed would not leave him with enough “profit,” and in their text messages the two used the terms “ghost” and “p80” for the serial-numberless privately made guns .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
The guns were real and traceable. During the conspiracy, Baine purchased multiple firearms from retail establishments in North Carolina; one was recovered in a separate criminal investigation in Buffalo on July 4, 2024, and another was recovered in a separate Buffalo investigation on June 19, 2026 . In October 2024, Baine told ATF agents in an interview that he had purchased multiple firearms for Humphrey in North Carolina, confirmed he knew Humphrey and another individual were reselling the guns in New York, and said he sold them because he was unemployed and needed the money; he admitted that neither he nor Humphrey was a licensed importer, manufacturer, dealer, or collector of firearms .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The plea lands in the middle of the DOJ’s Operation Take Back America, the initiative marshaling department resources against violent crime and gun trafficking, and the investigation was run by the Buffalo Police Department under Commissioner Erika Shields and the ATF under Special Agent-in-Charge Bryan DiGirolamo . Assistant U.S. Attorneys Louis A. Testani and Monica Benjovsky are prosecuting . His co-conspirators are already accounted for in the docket: Humphrey and Turner were previously convicted and are awaiting sentencing, while charges remain pending against Woods and Martin .
Current Status
Baine is awaiting his March 5, 2027 sentencing on the single conspiracy count, which caps his exposure at five years — a modest term by trafficking-case standards, but a federal felony conviction that records him as the out-of-state supplier in a gun pipeline whose products kept turning up in Buffalo investigations as late as June 2026 .
Impact on Their Career/Life
Baine’s text-message record — photographs of nineteen firearms, “ghost” and “p80” shorthand, haggling over “profit” — is now the documented portrait of a straw-purchase pipeline running from Triangle-area gun stores to Buffalo’s streets. At 23, he carries a federal felony conviction, a five-year ceiling, and co-defendants still ahead of their own sentencings.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of New York, “North Carolina man pleads guilty for his role in gun trafficking conspiracy,” October 23, 2026 — source