OAKLAND — A Hayward man was sentenced to five years in federal prison for operating a gun trafficking ring that prosecutors say relied on woman he was pimping to purchase guns for him to re-sell to criminals.

Najee Thompson, 32, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, ending a case that ran into a snag when Thompson was arrested in Oklahoma less than a month after pleading guilty to dealing firearms without a license. Prosecutors allege that Thompson — a man with two pimping-related convictions — would meet women on dating websites, woo them romantically, the convince them to become “straw purchasers” to buy guns.

“In some cases, he would proposition them to come to California to ‘work’ for him as prostitutes,” federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo, citing a

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