Ex-informant convicted in gun case

By Guillermo Contreras
Published 02:50 p.m., Wednesday, June 6, 2012

A federal jury has found a former federal informant guilty of engaging in the business of firearms without a license and selling firearms to a convicted felon.

Harmon Chester Strunk Jr., 58, used to work as an informant for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, but he became a target in 2010 after the ATF was tipped off to someone advertising guns for sale in newspaper ads.

The ATF said at his trial this week that they found Strunk did not have a license to sell firearms, yet found ways around the law to dispose of guns for other people. The ATF agency intervened before he was able to “indiscriminately” sell 300 guns on the East Side.

Agents used an informant, a felon, to buy two firearms from Strunk, and recovered at least 32 guns from him in a raid.

Strunk faces up to 15 years in prison when U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia sentences him Sept. 6.

Ex-informant convicted in gun case - San Antonio Express-News