Ex-Boston Celtic On Trial In Chicago Train-Guns Case

Chicago Violence Train Thefts
Railcars are positioned in Hammond, Ind., to cross over the Calumet River into Chicago. The 2015 heist of over 100 guns, preceded by one in 2014, and another last September from a Chicago rail yard highlight a tragic confluence. Chicago’s biggest rail yards are on the gang- and homicide-plagued South and West Sides where most of the city’s hundreds of killings happened last year. Residents near the yard are angry the multibillion-dollar railroad isn’t doing more to stop the thefts. Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press
Chicago Violence Train Thefts
Railcars are positioned in Hammond, Ind., to cross over the Calumet River into Chicago. The 2015 heist of over 100 guns, preceded by one in 2014, and another last September from a Chicago rail yard highlight a tragic confluence. Chicago’s biggest rail yards are on the gang- and homicide-plagued South and West Sides where most of the city’s hundreds of killings happened last year. Residents near the yard are angry the multibillion-dollar railroad isn’t doing more to stop the thefts. Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press

Ex-Boston Celtic On Trial In Chicago Train-Guns Case

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CHICAGO (AP) — A trial is underway of a former Boston Celtics basketball player accused of receiving guns that were stolen off a freight train in Chicago.

Forty-three-year-old Nate Driggers looked on Monday during opening statements. A prosecutor held up one of the guns and told jurors Driggers dealt in stolen goods.

The theft of around 100 new handguns, valued at $50,000, occurred on April 12, 2015 at a South Side rail yard. Prosecutors say the thieves were street gang members and delivered 30 guns to Driggers the same day.

A defense lawyer said the government’s main witnesses are the thieves themselves who have reason to lie in hopes of reduced sentences.

Driggers’ career in the NBA was brief. He played in about a dozen games for the Celtics in the 1996-97 season.