Photo courtesy of : Office of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman

When a 550-pound Bronx gun-ring boss failed to appear in court, it wasn’t because he was playing hooky, but because his wheelchair failed to fit into the Bronx courthouse elevator.

William “Wobbles” Soler was arrested along with ten other gang members back in the beginning of May. All men are facing criminal charges for operating a gun-smuggling ring out of a pair of apartment buildings in the Bronx. According to authorities, the gun ring was smuggling assault weapons from Connecticut and Maine and reselling them within New York City. “Wobbles” Soler has been identified as the group’s ringleader, who sold 93 weapons to an undercover officer in 2014.

Soler originally entered the courthouse through a wide garage door. But once he got to the elevators, his wheelchair was too large to squeeze through the elevator doors. “Basically, it’s a love seat on wheels,” said Bronx Supreme Court Judge George Villegas. To accommodate for the unforeseen misarrangement, the judge, prosecutors, Soler’s lawyer and other officials were required to meet with Soler in a lobby where he pleaded “not guilty.”

NYPD aggressively pursue gun-smugglers due to the types of people who tend to buy smuggled guns. “This is the way that criminals get guns that they use to murder police officers and murder other New Yorkers,” said state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. “People who do this for a living we will pursue as aggressively as we can.”

Authorities claim Soler and his fellow gang members would sneak firearms into the city alongside commuters on Metro trains. All accused men are members of an East Coast sect of the Bloods called “Red Side” and are being held without bail and face charges of felony conspiracy, criminal possession and criminals sale of firearms.