Stewart Silvestri is charged with unlawful possession of a machine gun and faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if found guilty, the US Attorney for Massachusetts said.
Several people called police about a reckless driver on Route 95 who had pulled into a weigh station in Rowley, Mass. When police arrived, they found Silvestri, who said he was returning home from visiting an armory in New Hampshire, authorities said. Officers noticed as he reached for his license and registration that Silvestri appeared to be sitting on guns, officials said.
Police searched the car and found eight privately made "ghost guns," two of them were fully automatic, the US Attorney's Office said. Officers also found hundreds of rounds of ammunition and many firearms parts, the prosecutor said.
“The alleged conduct here is incredibly serious. Mr. Silvestri allegedly possessed eight unserialized and untraceable ghost guns. These dangerous weapons are nearly impossible to trace and directly contribute to the ongoing plague of gun violence we see across the nation and in our Commonwealth," said United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins. "Moreover, two of the firearms Mr. Silvestri allegedly possessed were machineguns capable of causing extreme harm, destruction, and even mass casualties in the blink of an eye."
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