14 DAY TRIAL // An Instagram post has led police to a massive gun seizing operation in New York City.
19 people have been arrested after Brooklyn rapper Matthew Best posted several photos of guns on his account.
He also made YouTube videos suggesting that he was selling weapons, NY Daily News informed.
As you can see in the screen grab attached to this news article, he was posting under the handle nanobest. Other posts include wads of cash.
Police have been after Best for a year and they were planning to arrest him on narcotics charges when they noticed the photos on his Instagram account.
A raid lead to 250 weapons being confiscated and 19 arrests being made. Best and a second man were arrested for trading guns bought mostly in North and South Carolina.
17 other people were charged for being accomplices in the gun ring. Two of the weapons were traced to Georgia, one to Ohio and one to Arizona.
243 of the firearms were handguns, but nine rifles and two shotguns were also uncovered. 26-year-old Best was making the transactions out of his recording studio in Ocean Hill.
"Thank God these guns are off the streets.
"There is no doubt that the seizure of these guns has saved lives," Mayor Bloomberg stated in a press conference at Police Headquarters.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly has detailed that the bust was made possible by an officer going undercover.
The operation involved buying all the weapons he would be offered in order to get them out of circulation.
"More than 200 guns is an astonishing number to recover by one undercover," Kelly says.
Best would sell the weapons to Adeji Omole, 31 from Brooklyn. The police started investigating a second man who was selling weapons originating from the same states.
23-year-old Earl Campbell has been charged after selling the undercover agent a total of 90 guns. Police also have a recording of him discussing the possibility of getting caught in New York.