An Upper East Side man was indicted Wednesday for allegedly turning his apartment into a factory for ghost gun parts and narcotics.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that Christopher Fox, 30, of East 84th Street, allegedly had enough 3D-printed gun parts “to assemble an operable assault weapon-style rifle,” and more than $7,000 in drug paraphernalia and chemicals that could be used to create synthetic drugs. For good measure, he also allegedly possessed numerous quantities of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, oxycodone, amphetamine and methadone.
Fox now faces a litany of felony weapon and drug possession charges, which could result in lengthy prison sentences if convicted. Prosecutors said it’s believed that Fox allegedly acted as a drug trafficker; a review of his CashApp account found that $345,000 flowed through his accounts between April 2020 and January 2023, even though he did not appear to be gainfully employed.
“[Fox’s] use of 3D printing to manufacture parts for assault-style weapons serves as another example of just how easy and cheap it is to create dangerous firearms in a home or apartment,” Bragg said in an April 26 statement. With just a couple clicks online and a few hundred dollars, these guns can be created without any background check or license. We will continue to crackdown on the polymer pipeline with our law enforcement partners and advocate for tougher laws to stop the proliferation of these weapons.”
During a lengthy investigation, the NYPD and the Manhattan DA’s office determined that Fox had conducted his ghost gun part operation between March 30, 2018 and Dec. 17 of last year. In that period, he allegedly bought at least 190 items worth about $7,600 with the specific intent to build ghost guns — untraceable firearms, usually generated from parts produced via 3D printers and sold in build-it-yourself kits to customers online.
Investigators also found out that Fox allegedly bought more than $7,000 in various drug paraphernalia and various chemicals typically used in the production of synthetic controlled substances, including chloroform, nitric acid, ethanol, ammonium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid, and potassium nitrate. They also learned that he allegedly bought six pounds of microcrystalline cellulose and 3 1/2 pounds of lactose monohydrate, both of which are used for producing pills.
As a result of the probe, prosecutors said, the NYPD raided Fox’s apartment on March 8 of this year in a court-authorized search. They recovered an array of 3D-produced gun parts including silencers, large capacity magazines, unfinished frames or receivers and receivers. They also picked up an ammunition press, three 3D printers, multiple spools of filament, an ammunition press, and numerous digital blueprints to print assault weapon-style rifles with the 3D printers.
The raid further led to the discovery of various narcotics and a pill press with a hopper, a blender, glassware, a scale and laboratory equipment — most of which contained fentanyl residue, Bragg noted.
Fentanyl is one of the most lethal synthetic drugs on the market; the synthetic opioid is 50 times more potent than heroin, and when combined with other drugs, can prove fatal when ingested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 150 people in the U.S. die every day as a result of overdoses related to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.
Meanwhile, Bragg and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell applauded the arrest, which was the latest in the ongoing “Ghost Gun Initiative” launched in 2020 to crack down on the proliferation of the untraceable weapons on the streets of New York. To date, the Manhattan DA’s office has prosecuted cases resulting in the seizure of more than 90 ghost gun parts, 42 fully-assembled weapons, 24 serialized firearms, 423 high-capacity magazines, 47 silencers, and other related material.
“Today’s charges underscore the fact that the manufacturing of illegal, untraceable ghost guns continues to be the fastest-growing public-safety threat we are facing – and we are attacking it head-on,” Sewell said Wednesday. “Our ongoing efforts to eradicate gun violence in New York mean that NYPD investigators, in close cooperation with all of our law enforcement partners at the city, state, and federal levels, will never stop pursuing these types of cases.”
Read more: NYC DOC Hires 5 New Assistant Commissioners for Jail Reforms
