Lawncrest man admits to buying guns for teenage drug dealer

A Lawncrest man pleaded guilty today to illegally purchasing guns for a 16-year-old drug dealer who used one of those firearms to shoot someone.

Luke Dercole, 32, pleaded guilty to four violations of the Uniform Firearms Act and now awaits sentencing, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday. He faces up to 14 years in prison.

Dercole was arrested in February following an investigation and the search of a home in Frankford, after which Dercole admitted to trading the guns to Michael Burak for bags of heroin. Burak was charged with the Oct. 28, 2012 shooting of 20-year-old Jonathan Espinoza in Oxford Circle.

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