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Arrest in Montco illegal-gun probe

One of the guns was used last week by a man who was angry at his ex-girlfriend and fired seven bullets through a window into her Norristown home – just missing an 8-year-old child, police said.

One of the guns was used last week by a man who was angry at his ex-girlfriend and fired seven bullets through a window into her Norristown home – just missing an 8-year-old child, police said.

Three more guns allegedly were sold outside Cheltenham Mall in July. The man who bought them was slain in Philadelphia four months later, his death still unsolved, officials said.

Yet another weapon, an AK-47, was sold to "a foreigner" - a man from Africa who lives in Ambler and drives a gold-colored SUV, a confidential informant allegedly told detectives.

Police in Montgomery County are trying to track down 10 firearms stolen from two gun shops during the summer. Most of the missing weapons have been tied to Andrew Joseph Rocco, 33, of Lansdale, who was charged Monday with allegedly stealing and illegally selling them.

"There are 10 more [stolen] guns that are out there and they are dangerous," Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said at a news conference Monday. "We hope they can be recovered without any more harm done to another person."

The investigation, outlined in court documents, offers a glimpse into illegal gun sales and the vast web of police resources across the county and beyond that is often required to combat straw purchases.

The District Attorney's Office and several police departments used confidential informants as well as some of the alleged straw purchasers to help take down Rocco. He admitted stealing and selling most of the guns after police took him into custody on unrelated charges Thursday.

Confidential informants allegedly told police that Rocco, who has worked as an electrician, hawked the weapons to feed his addiction to pain-killers.

The investigation began in June when Dell's Fire Arms Specialists Inc. in Hatfield Township was burglarized. Taken were three firearms, including the AK-47 and a Ruger .44 Magnum, police said. A month later, nine firearms, mostly handguns, were pilfered from the Modern Tactical gun shop in Lansdale.

The first major clue came when three men went to Dell's to buy bullets for a .44 Magnum. An employee noticed that one had a photo on his phone of the stolen .44, police said.

Another break came when Franklin Lamar Butler was arrested last week on charges he fired a 9 millimeter handgun into his ex-girlfriend's house in Norristown, police said. Butler allegedly told them that he bought the gun from Rocco for $500 near some basketball courts in Penllyn.

Police said they took Rocco into custody last week on unrelated charges involving breaking into cars. In conversations with detectives he confessed to the burglaries and selling many of the guns, including the sale of three to a man who was killed last month in Philadelphia, court records stated. Montgomery County officials confirmed the unsolved homicide.

Rocco admitted that he stole seven or eight of the 12 guns pilfered in the burglaries, police said. Two of them, the Ruger and the handgun fired by Butler in Norristown, have been recovered.