Anti-gun group founder pleads no contest to gun charges

by Rob Peters | January 18, 2008 at 09:10 am

280 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

Is there such a thing as a gang wagon, and can one fall off it? It would explain this ex-gang member's return to the dark side.

Ironic would also be an apt description.

LOS ANGELES - A former Los Angeles gang member who founded an anti-violence group called No Guns has pleaded no contest to federal weapons charges.

Hector (Big Weasel) Marroquin, 51, and co-defendant Sylvia Arrellano, 25, entered pleas Thursday for three counts of manufacture, distribution and transport for sale of an unlawful assault weapon.

Arrellano also pleaded no contest to machine-gun conversion and possessing a silencer and acknowledged the crime was committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang.

She was given until Tuesday to surrender for sentencing and would likely be sentenced to four years in prison, prosecutors said.

Marroquin founded No Guns in 1996, ostensibly to reduce gang and gun violence. The group received $1.5 million from the city as a subcontractor on anti-gang efforts but its contract was cancelled last year after authorities learned Marroquin had hired relatives, including his son, Hector (Little Weasel) Marroquin.