Mayor Eric Adams displaying “ghost guns” at NYPD headquarters, May 2022.
Photo: Fernando Martínez / Impremedia
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René Loyola, a young resident of Brooklyn (NYC), was arrested with an arsenal of parts to make “ghost guns” valued at $20,000, including almost 300 high-capacity magazines that he allegedly bought online, authorities announced today.
Loyola, 25, was charged with ordering the massive stash of gun parts from 12 online retailers between March 2020 and March 2022, the Manhattan and Brooklyn district attorneys said in a joint news release.
The “ghost weapons” owe their name to the fact that they are difficult to trace as they lack a serial number, since they are assembled in a homemade way, built with parts that are sometimes bought on the internet.
Supposedly Loyola had sent some of the pieces of the firearms to a Pennsylvania address to avoid strict NY lawsindicated New York Post.
Police raided Loyola’s Brooklyn apartment and a Manhattan storage unit on April 20 and recovered equipment, including more than 30 gun frames and receivers and nearly 300 high-capacity magazines that could hold about 9,000 rounds, police said. authorities today.
Loyola was indicted by a grand jury on May 6, 235 counts of criminal possession of a weapon and other related. This morning he appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court with his attorney and pleaded “not guilty.” Prosecutors said he posted bail that was set at $150,000 cash or $200,000 surety.
“Ghost guns” have become a national crisis. The Mayor Eric Adams has said that they are responsible for paying the wave of violence that keeps New York City in check and its surroundings, but has found obstacles within his own Democratic party y Black Lives Matter (BLM) leaders to face the crisis.
In October the NY Governor Kathy Hochul ,signed a law to crack down on “ghost guns” statewide. And in his visit to NYC in February after the murder of two young Hispanic police officers in Harlem, President Joe Biden endorsed Mayor Adams’ plan to curb crime and gun violence. He also launched a national initiative against illegal arms trafficking.
In April, a elderly man was arrested when it was determined that he had 18 weapons in his home in Long Island (NY)where also at the beginning of the year police seized 30 rifles and pistols at the home of Dr. Paul Carey, a dentist 62 years old whose criminal record prevented him from possessing firearms.
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