Alleged Gang Gun Supplier Is Captured : Crime: Federal agents arrest a convicted felon after a frantic foot chase.

A convicted felon suspected of selling guns to street-gang members and drug dealers was arrested Monday after leading federal agents on a frantic chase over back-yard fences and past a snarling Doberman pinscher, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Willie Edward Harris, 46, was charged with 12 counts of being a felon in possession of firearms and one count of possession of ammunition, according to authorities.

Harris is suspected of hiring people without police records to legally purchase handguns from dealers and then turn them over to him for resale on the street.

The indictment, issued Dec. 12, charges Harris with possession of a total of 23 handguns on 13 separate occasions between October, 1986, and March, 1988. The charges are felonies and carry a penalty of five to 10 years in prison upon conviction.

Despite his alleged attempt to avoid arrest and an extensive criminal background, Harris was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond and is to be arraigned Dec. 26, according to federal agents.

Harris spotted agents converging on his home in a working-class neighborhood west of downtown Monday morning just as he was leaving, according to Jay Wachtel, a federal firearms official. Harris ducked back into the house and fled out the rear door, Wachtel said. The suspect, who is more than 6 feet tall and severely overweight, nimbly hopped back-yard fences as agents scurried after him, Wachtel said.

“A couple of agents had to go over fences,” he said, “and one of them almost got bit by a Doberman.”

Agents finally caught up with Harris, who surrendered without resistance, Wachtel said.

The arrest was the latest chapter in a years-long saga involving illicit firearms sales. Harris’ alleged weapons trafficking first came to the attention of authorities on May 5, 1985, when he was arrested for illegally selling a handgun at a gun show in Pomona, a misdemeanor.

A records check by Pomona police showed that Harris had been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon involving a pistol in 1978. He also had been convicted of lewd acts with a child under 14 in 1971.

Pomona police served a search warrant on Harris’ home in Los Angeles and discovered two more handguns, a blackjack and a billy club. Harris pleaded no contest to felony charges and was placed on unsupervised probation.

In April, 1986, Harris was arrested by Los Angeles police for allegedly selling a Mac-10 assault weapon with a silencer to an informant.

The case was turned over to federal authorities who sought Harris’ cooperation in an investigation into the gun-dealing business of James Glen Boyd, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s reserve deputy who allegedly was selling guns to Harris as well as to a Filipino national. The Filipino national, Nestor Atacador, was allegedly smuggling the guns out of the country for resale.

That case collapsed when Boyd died and Atacador jumped bail.

Harris continued his illicit gun dealing, sometimes conducting business over a phone in a Lincoln Town Car, according to a federal search warrant affidavit. The suspect sometimes supplied cocaine to a female accomplice in exchange for buying guns for him from legitimate firearms dealers, according to the affidavit. Harris, in turn, arranged to sell some of the weapons to a drug dealer, according to the affidavit.

Harris denied the accusations in an interview with The Times earlier this year.