A federal prisoner affiliated with white supremacy groups was allegedly caught selling firearms to an undercover cop through an app, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the NYPD announced Tuesday.
According to authorities, 24-year-old Hayden Espinosa is accused of being the mastermind behind an illegal firearm ring operated through the Telegram app under the group title 3D Amendment. Posing under the username Treason 3DA, law enforcement agents said, Espinosa allegedly worked with others to sell everything from Glock-style handguns and weapon parts, as well as silencers and high-capacity magazines.
Bragg and several other agencies, at a June 11 press conference in Lower Manhattan, showcased screenshots from the Telegram app that not only showcased how the weapons were sold, but also disturbing messages that included racially and ethnically motivated extremist views.
One image even appeared to show a man in a mask and bulletproof vest wearing a swastika across his arm.
Court records indicated that the white supremacist rhetoric ran deep in the chats Espinoza had in the Telegram channel.
“The combination of extremism and firearms is incredibly dangerous and threatens the safety of so many New Yorkers,” Bragg said. “A hallmark of our approach to combating gun violence is partnering with our law enforcement partners, and this case involved cooperation at the local, state and federal level. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to stop the flow of illegal weapons into our city.”
Through the investigation, investigators learned that Espinosa allegedly made three separate sales to an undercover officer posing as a buyer — including an AR-15 rifle, silencers, a Glock handgun, and auto sears (a rapid-fire modification).
Bragg reaffirmed the need to combat extremism and gun violence with legislation to put an end to 3D printed guns manufacturing and diagrams. Detectives investigating the May 14, 2021 mass shooting at a Buffalo, NY supermarket, for instance learned that the killer used apps like Telegram in advance of the massacre.
In fact, law enforcement agents revealed that Espinoza had contact with the convicted mass shooter, Payton Gendron, via Telegram.
“This is a recognition of the growing threats around acceleration in white supremacy, Nazi ideology,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Ulam Weiner said.
The case spans through multiple states, including Ohio, Louisiana, Texas, North Carolina and New York in which Espinosa sold weapons through an online marketplace run from a federal prison in Louisiana through contraband cell phones.
While cellphone use behind bars is not named in the complaint, DA Bragg was taken aback by how Espinosa was able to mastermind the operation using a contraband item.
“That is a sobering piece of this. That’s not in the New York indictment, but it’s something that we’re all concerned about,” Bragg noted.
Espinosa was released from a federal prison in Louisiana on June 4; however, members of the Grant Parish Sheriff’s office rearrested him after being indicted by the New York State Supreme Court. He will be extradited and arraigned to New York State Supreme Court on June 24.
Espinosa is charged with four counts of transport of a firearm, machine gun, silencer, disguised gun, and one count criminal sale of a firearm.
