NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced a 625-count indictment charging five individuals for their involvement in a gun trafficking operation that sold dozens of ghost guns, assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in Queens, New York. An investigation led by the Office of the Attorney General’s (OAG) Organized Crime Task Force (OCTF) recovered 86 firearms – including 55 ghost guns and 25 assault weapons – along with over 90 high-capacity magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. The individuals involved in the operation transported 3D-printed ghost guns assembled in Nassau County and serialized firearms purchased in Indiana into Queens, where they were stored and sold.
“When gun traffickers flood neighborhoods with untraceable firearms, they fuel violence that tears communities apart,” said Attorney General James. “This investigation successfully stopped a dangerous gun trafficking operation by removing dozens of ghost guns and assault weapons from our streets. I will continue to use every available resource to stop illegal gun trafficking and protect our communities from the dangers of gun violence. I thank our partners in this investigation for their diligent work to keep New Yorkers safe.”
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The takedown was the result of a joint investigation between OCTF, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York, and the New York City Police Department (NYPD). The investigation included controlled firearms purchase operations, covert video surveillance, social media monitoring, and analysis of financial and telephone records.
The investigation began in late 2023 and focused on the activities of Satveer Saini and his associates, Mateo Castro-Agudelo, Hargeny Fernandez-Gonzalez, Adam Youssef Senhaji-Rivas, and Milanjit Sidhu.
Saini, Fernandez-Gonzalez, and Senhaji-Rivas paid over $27,000 to purchase firearms from Indiana, which has less restrictive gun laws than New York. Early in the investigation, Saini and Castro-Agudelo were driving from Indianapolis to Queens with weapons purchased in Indiana when they were stopped for speeding by the Ohio State Highway Patrol in Medina County, Ohio. The stop recovered nine unloaded serialized handguns from inside Saini’s rental car. From this point on, Fernandez-Gonzalez began paying Sidhu to drive weapons from Indianapolis to Queens.
Fernandez-Gonzalez also bought 3D-printed ghost guns in Nassau County and brought them to Queens for other members of the trafficking ring to sell. Saini, Castro-Agudelo, and Senhaji-Rivas all sold trafficked firearms, high-capacity magazines, and ammunition during the course of the investigation.
Saini sold these firearms in various locations in Queens, including at the Louis C. Moser Playground in Jackson Heights on a weekday afternoon, and in the parking lot of the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst.
Castro-Agudelo and Fernandez-Gonzalez used a garage in Elmhurst to store weapons, at one point hiding twelve firearms – including seven ghost guns – and numerous high-capacity magazines inside a guitar case in the garage. Castro-Agudelo used the guitar case to transport firearms and ammunition to his customers. At least one of the firearms sales he made took place outside of a smoke shop in Jackson Heights where he worked.
Castro-Agudelo posted pictures of these guns on social media accounts, including on a publicly available X (formerly Twitter) account, displaying many of the guns and significant amounts of cash.
The investigation recovered 86 firearms, including 55 ghost guns and 25 assault weapons, in addition to over 90 high-capacity magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
