More than 140 guns stolen from Des Plaines shop

Four teenagers who are suspected of stealing more than 140 firearms from a Des Plaines gun store and shooting range early Sunday morning have been arrested, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said Thursday.

Des Plaines police say masked thieves smashed the glass door at Maxon Shooters Supplies and Indoor Range about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, and then forced open a steel door to get inside.

Once there, they smashed several glass display cases and grabbed the weapons, police said. Police said they left the Rand Road store in a dark colored, sedan-style vehicle.

The Chicago Police Department gang investigations division got a tip, and obtained a search warrant for an address in the Englewood neighborhood on the city’s South Side. There they found 29 handguns and evidence linking the guns to the Des Plaines shop, police said.

Chicago police say altogether they recovered 58 firearms — the majority of them from the Des Plaines shop — from that Englewood address plus a second one; and addresses in Dolton and Blue Island.

The search of a Country Club Hills address found burglary tools and a large amount of currency inside a vehicle suspected to have been used by the burglars, police said.

Four teenagers were charged in the multijurisdictional gunrunning investigation.

Trevell Allen, 17, of Blue Island, was charged with aggravated possession of multiple stolen firearms.

Emanuel Warner, 17, of Dolton, was charged with aggravated possession of multiple stolen firearms.

Brandon McGee, 18, of an Englewood address, was charged with seven counts of unlawful sale of a firearm, and Darrell Holmes, 19, of Blue Island, was charged with one count of possession of a stolen firearm.

An employee at Maxon Shooters Supplies refused comment, but said the shop is open for business.

The investigation included the Cook County State’s attorney’s office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

This is the second time the gun shop has been robbed of firearms, which ended up in Chicago since 2008, according to Daily Herald records.

In July 2008, a Mount Prospect man admitted to stealing 19 guns in two separate robberies of the Maxon gun shop in Des Plaines. Mikolaj Lakomski told police he sold 18 of the firearms to a Chicago street gang for between $400 and $500 each.