Tahir Zahir (Credit: Bucks County District Attorney’s Office)
Police alleged in court papers that the defendant purchased 16 firearms from multiple counties, including Bucks, Delaware, Lancaster, Montgomery, and Philadelphia.
A Delaware County man faces multiple charges after authorities linked guns he purchased to violent crimes in Philadelphia, officials announced Friday.
Tahir Zahir, 29, of Sharon Hill, was preliminarily arraigned Wednesday before District Judge Charles Jonas on charges of dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, making false statements on firearm purchase forms, unlawful sales of firearms, sales to an ineligible transferee, firearm ownership – duty of other persons, and criminal conspiracy.
Police alleged in court papers that Zahir purchased 16 firearms from multiple counties, including Bucks, Delaware, Lancaster, Montgomery, and Philadelphia, between Aug. 8, 2018, and June 23, 2023.
Six of the guns were bought from Auger Precision Firearms in Bristol Township’s Croydon section, and one from The Bunker Gun Shop II in Chalfont Borough, police said.
Four of the eight Glock pistols Zahir purchased between Feb. 8, 2020, and Oct. 15, 2021, were recovered in Philadelphia, police said.
Some of the guns purchased by Zahir were used in shootings and one was found with a known a gang member, authorities alleged.
Of the firearms linked to crimes, only two had been reported stolen, which has complicating the efforts to track their distribution and use, police said.
Zahir, according to authorities, was a straw purchaser.
“A straw purchase is the illegal buying of a gun by an individual, a ‘straw buyer,’ on behalf of such a person,” according to a definition from federal law enforcement.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said investigation is ongoing.
Jonas ordered Zahir held at the Bucks County Correctional Facility with bail set at $1 million.
The probe is being spearheaded by a Middletown Township detective who is part of the the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office Gun Violence Task Force. The Bucks County Detectives, Montgomery County Detectives Bureau, Delaware County Narcotics and Gun Violence Task Force, Delaware County District Attorney’s Office, and the Philadelphia Police Department.
All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.
