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Federal prosecutors in Boston said the seizures followed an
investigation since August 2023 into websites, businesses and
people offering to illegally sell and import machine gun
conversion devices.
Law enforcement conducted undercover purchases from those
websites of gun-related items, resulting in shipments from China
of packages that falsely described their contents as containing
materials like a "necklace" or "toys," prosecutors said.
In fact, the packages contained machine gun conversion devices
known as "switches" and silencers that are prohibited from being
imported under the federal National Firearms Act, prosecutors
said.
Many of the websites sold counterfeit goods and misused gun
manufacturer Glock Inc's trademark to suggest the switches were
produced by the company when they were not, authorities said in
court papers.
"The seizure of these domains is a critical step in disrupting
the flow of dangerous contraband that threatens public safety,"
Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy in Massachusetts said in a
statement.
Over 700 machine gun conversion devices, 87 illegal suppressors,
59 handguns and 46 long guns have been seized as a result of the
probe, in addition to the 355 websites, said Ketty Larco-Ward,
inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's
Boston Division.
"The proliferation of readily available devices which allow the
illegal manufacturing of machine guns is a plague on our
communities," she said.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Richard Chang)
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