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A Richmond gunrunner who manipulated a woman hooked on heroin into making straw purchases at a local gun show pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy charges in a scheme that transferred four pistols to a New Jersey man now charged with murder.

Authorities said Shawn M. Johnson, 43, admitted to police after his arrest that he directed a Richmond woman to whom he provided drugs to illegally purchase a total of 11 firearms from gun shows in Henrico and Augusta counties last August.

Johnson advised Virginia State Police that he later sold all the guns to a man in New Jersey who was later charged with murder.

Through straw purchases made by co-defendant Rihana C. Watson, Johnson bought the four pistols at the Henrico gun show for $167 each and later resold them for $500 each in cash or an equivalent amount of drugs, said Henrico Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert C. Cerullo.

The weapons were never recovered, so it’s unclear whether any of them were used in violent crimes in New Jersey or elsewhere.

Cerullo said authorities are following leads into the illegal gun transfers to the New Jersey man, who is awaiting trial. His name and details of the killing for which he is charged were not immediately available.