ATLANTA — Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia detailed a gun trafficking ring Monday that is accused of purchasing nearly 300 guns in Georgia. Many of the guns showed up at crime scenes or in the hands of convicts in Philadelphia, according to officials.
In a recently unsealed federal indictment, 11 people are charged with felony crimes in connection with the gun sales.
"I've never actually been to Philadelphia," Fredrick Norman told NBC News in an interview this past weekend.
Norman is an Atlanta rapper who goes by "Slowkey Fred" and is one of five Georgians named in the indictment.
He is accused along with four other defendants from Georgia of buying the guns, as part of straw purchases – when someone buys a gun for someone else, who legally can't buy a gun or doesn't want to personally buy a gun because of the paper trail attached to the sale.
"I can't speak to that," Norman said during the interview about the allegations against him.
The rapper didn't confirm or deny the allegations.
"I was just living life at the moment, so I can't really share details of how I got to where I am at or how anything started or if anything started," he said.
The other named defendants from Georgia are Brianna Walker, Stephen Norman, Devin Church and Charles O'Bannon.
The remaining six defendants are listed in the indictment as Philadelphia residents.
Federal court records detail Fredrick Norman as recruiting the co-defendants from Georgia to help purchase guns in 2020.
The purchases were allegedly made at 24 different stores across north and central Georgia, and across Atlanta.
Norman told NBC News he attended his first gun show in 2020 and he didn't know how easy it was to buy a gun.
"The process threw me off," he said. "You walk in, there is a police officer at the front. They don't check for, you know, ID, or carry licenses if you're a felon or nothing."
During one search for evidence in the case, federal agents reported finding 4,000 rounds of ammo and 183 firearms boxes. Out of those boxes, 69 were "from firearms known to have been purchased by Fredrick Norman," an application for a warrant reads.
Federal prosecutors held a press conference Monday afternoon with some of the recovered guns on hand. Officials confirmed guns that had been trafficked from Georgia ended up at crime scenes in Philadelphia.
A U.S. Attorney said the Department of Justice is focused on stopping such cases.
"We are aggressively engaged in this work," U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said. "Our goal is to halt the flow of illegal weapons contributing to violent crimes in our city and to support local law enforcement throughout."
Fredrick Norman wouldn't comment on whether he feels responsible for any gun violence in Philadelphia, but did offer this comment.
"I do care about harm being brought toward people because I'm not an advocate of violence," he said.