Man Sentenced To Up To 25 Years For ‘Straw Purchases’

October 20, 2025

Tahir Zahir Credit: Bucks County District Attorney’s Office

A Delaware County man will spend time behind bars after an investigation into purchasing firearms later used in crimes in Philadelphia.

Tahir Zahir, 30, of Sharon Hill, Delaware County, was sentenced Monday morning by Court of Common Pleas Judge Stephen Corr to 12 to 25 years in a state correctional facility. He will then have to serve two years of probation.

Zahir pleaded guilty in August to multiple charges, including proceeds of unlawful activities, making false statements on firearm purchase forms, unlawful sales of firearms, sales to an ineligible transferee, firearm ownership – duty of other persons and criminal conspiracy. Court of Common Pleas Judge Stephen Corr handed down the sentence.

Authorities identified Zahir as a straw purchaser, which federal law enforcement defines as the “illegal buying of a gun by an individual, a ‘straw buyer,’ on behalf of such a person.”

“Detectives concluded that Zahir exhibited numerous indicators of being a straw purchaser. These indicators included buying a large number of guns in a short time frame, buying the same exact firearm on several occasions, and the firearms being recovered by law enforcement from violent activities shortly after they were purchased,” the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said.

Investigators said Zahir bought 14 firearms in multiple counties — including Bucks, Delaware, Lancaster, Montgomery, and Philadelphia — between Aug. 8, 2018, and June 23, 2023.

Six of the guns were bought from Auger Precision Firearms in Bristol Township’s Croydon section, and one from The Bunker Gun Shop II in Chalfont Borough, according to police.

Of the firearms purchased, five were later found and linked to crimes in Philadelphia, police said.

According to law enforcement, some were used in shootings, and one was found with a known gang member, authorities stated.

Police noted that only two of the firearms linked to crimes had been reported stolen, complicating efforts to track their distribution and use.

Zahir was arrested last December following an investigation that involved the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office Gun Violence Task Force, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Bucks County Detectives, Montgomery County Detectives Bureau, Delaware County Narcotics and Gun Violence Task Force, the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office and the Philadelphia Police Department.

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office issued a statement vowing to “tirelessly pursue and prosecute straw purchasers like Zahir.”

“This sentence sends a clear message that we will continue to use every resource available to get illegal guns and the offenders who traffic them off our streets and out of our communities,” the statement read.

Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.

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