(Hickory, NC) -- The US Attorney's Office from the Middle District of North Carolina announced that John Jacob Morton, 64, of Hickory, NC, has been indicted on federal weapons charges.
Morton was arrested in Yadkin County on January 28, 2012 after the Yadkin County Sheriff's Office conducted a five month long investigation into the manufacturing sale and possession of weapons of mass destruction. It was also reported that Morton was selling handguns to convicted felons and illegal immigrants while displaying them at a stand at the Vintage Village Flea market in Hamptonville.
Agents with the US Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives along with detectives from the Yadkin County Sheriff's Office presented Morton's case to the US Attorney's Office in June were a federal grand jury indicted Morton on June 25, 2012. Morton was entered as a fugitive from justice in the National Criminal Data Base.
Detectives from Yadkin County Sheriff's Office along with the Alexander County Sheriff's Office apprehended Morton on July 10, 2012, in Hickory, NC. The Yadkin Detectives then delivered Morton to the US Marshall's Service in Greensboro NC the next day.
Morton's indictment included selling and distributing firearms without a license, possession of a double barreled shotgun having a barrel length less than sixteen inches and manufacturing a weapon of mass destruction.