A Glendale man was arraigned on a 131-count complaint on March 4 after police allegedly recovered an operable ghost gun, components for 19 others and thousands of rounds of ammunition from his home and storage facility in connection with a ghost gun investigation.
A press release from the office of Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz on Saturday said Grzegorz Blachowicz, 36, of 64th Lane, was charged with first-degree attempted criminal possession of a weapon; three counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon; 26 counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon; 11 counts of third-degree attempted criminal possession of a weapon; two counts of criminal possession of a firearm; 18 counts of attempted criminal possession of a firearm; 65 counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon; criminal possession of a rapid-fire modification device; two counts of unlawful purchase of body armor; and two counts of unlawful possession of pistol ammunition.
He faces up to 15 years in prison and was scheduled to return to court on Monday, March 6.
According to the charges, members of the Queens District Attorney’s office were conducting a long-term investigation into the purchase of polymer-based, unserialized firearm components by Blachowicz.
The components are easily assembled into operable firearms without serial numbers — commonly referred to as “ghost guns” — that enable users to skirt background checks.
“Ghost gun trafficking is a developing cottage industry that threatens to make an already pervasive gun violence problem even worse,” Katz said in the statement. “That is why this case is so important and why my office is a leader in the fight against ghost guns.”
On March 1, officers from the New York Police Department’s Emergency Services Unit and Major Case Field Intelligence Team and the Queens District Attorney’s Detective Bureau obtained and executed a court-authorized search warrant of Blachowicz’s residence and allegedly recovered:
• one fully assembled semiautomatic assault pistol ghost gun with the ability to accept a detachable magazine and a threaded barrel;
• one Glock model rapid fire modification device;
• one 1911 model full ghost gun build kit;
• two Baretta-model ghost gun build kits;
• one large-capacity ammunition feeding device capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition;
• 15 additional magazines;
• four blank model Mac-11 and Mac-10 ghost gun frames;
• two bullet-resistant vests;
• one taser;
• ammunition of various calibers.
Manuals for various weapons and tools also were among the items seized.
Authorities later obtained an additional search warrant for a storage facility on 70th Street in Glendale which Katz’s office said was owned by Blachowicz, where law enforcement recovered items including:
• nine complete ghost gun assault weapon build kits, with the ability to accept a detachable magazine and a threaded barrel, for the assault rifle models AR-9, AR-10, AR-15, and AR-30;
• one complete ghost gun semiautomatic 9mm assault pistol build kit, with the ability to accept a detachable magazine and a threaded barrel;
• one complete Sig Sauer 9mm pistol build kit;
• five complete Polymer 80 semiautomatic ghost gun pistol build kits, for the following models and calibers: .45 caliber, 9mm Glock 17, 9mm Glock-26, 9mm Glock-43, and .22LR-caliber;
•two complete model AK-47 assault rifle ghost gun build kits;
• 25 “solvent traps” that can be made into firearm suppressors or silencers;
• 12 unfinished lower receivers;
• one model 1911 lower receivers;
• 24 assault rifle lower receivers;
• more than 207 large-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition; and
• one ghost gunner, which the press release said is a milling machine that gives the owner the ability to take unfinished lower receivers and convert them into components that can be further completed to build fully functioning firearms.
The DA’s Office said based on the items recovered, Blachowicz is alleged to have possessed one operable assault weapon, along with all of the components necessary to build up to an additional 19 completed ghost guns, including numerous assault-rifle-style weapons and semiautomatic pistols.
Authorities added that the items were all allegedly possessed along with foundational components necessary to build additional firearms, dozens of silencers, thousands of rounds of ammunition and large capacity magazines that can hold over ten rounds of ammunition
