NYC ghost gun ring selling cocaine busted by NYC state police
New York City and state law enforcement officers removed 19 illegal weapons and a cache of cocaine from circulation as part of a month-long investigation into a gun and drug ring whose members were charged in an indictment unsealed on Wednesday.
The 123-count indictment, released by Queens Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Braun, is the result of a 16-month investigation that Attorney General Letitia James and Mayor Adams touted as a sign that the state and city are making a dent in proliferation. ghost pistols, which are difficult to trace because they are sold for parts and usually do not carry serial numbers.
As part of the investigation, the attorney general’s Organized Crime Task Force and the New York Drug Task Force, which is comprised of officers from the NYPD, state police and DEA, removed 12 ghost weapons, including assault rifles, from the streets
“Every day someone in New York or in this country is harmed by gun violence,” James said at a news conference held at his downtown offices. “We witnessed it yesterday with two teenagers outside their schools in broad daylight, and more and more ghost guns are to blame for this destruction and this violence.”
The indictment accuses Eduardo Hernández, José García, and Euclides Castillo of trafficking 19 firearms, high-capacity ammunition cartridges, and 560 grams of cocaine, with an approximate value of $25,000.
Hernandez and Garcia allegedly purchased the guns in Massachusetts, brought them to New York, and then sold them from Hernandez’s home in Queens and in Port Chester, Westchester County. Before becoming involved with those two, Castillo worked for Smith & Wesson in the gun maker’s assembly division, James said, adding that Castillo gave buyers instructions on how to operate the guns.
Adams and James have made gun seizures a priority during their time in office, and on Wednesday praised President Biden, who announced a day earlier that he would issue an executive order aimed at beefing up enforcement of federal background check laws. targeting gun buyers
Adams noted that since he took office in January 2022, the NYPD has seized more than 8,500 weapons and made more than 5,000 weapons arrests. In June, he and James announced they were suing several manufacturers of ghost guns, with Adams saying at the time that “we’re not going to let gun companies turn New York into a murder-by-mail town.”
The mayor’s tone on Wednesday was equally grave. He noted that because ghost guns are essentially untraceable, current estimates of the number of guns currently in circulation in the US are probably way off.
“There is a level of clarity about the challenges we face,” Adams said. “We have a higher number of ghost guns being removed from our street compared to last year, but we are seeing continued reproduction. Someone with a 3D printer could sit inside their house and print a death device.”