Former Stuyvesant High teacher gets 15 years for part in smuggling ring

A former Stuyvesant High School teacher has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in a firearms and drug smuggling ring he believed was funding the Hamasterrorist group.

Theophilis”Mike” Burroughs, 54, was arrested in 2010 after a year-long investigation by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

Burroughs arranged to sell 13 guns and 27,000 cartons of untaxed cigarettes to undercover agents he believed were connected to Hamas.

Burroughs pleaded guilty to charges of criminal sale of a firearm, money laundering, tax evasion and conspiracy in exchange for a 10 year sentence in 2013. He later withdrew the guilty plea, but then took a plea last month that resulted in a longer sentence.

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by five years post-release supervision, and still faces gun, drug and cigarette charges in New Jersey.