A Fresh Meadows man was sentenced Friday in Queens Supreme Court to five and a half years in prison for possessing a stockpile of illegal weapons, including 25 ghost guns as well as large-capacity magazines and ammunition at his home.
Chaz McMillan, 21, of 162nd Street in Fresh Meadows, pleaded guilty in April to criminal possession of a weapon in the first degree.
According to the charges, investigators conducted surveillance on McMillan, who had been buying firearm parts online. They executed a search warrant on December 8, 2021, and recovered 20 ghost guns including 19 semi-automatic pistols and 1 semi-automatic shotgun with the characteristics to classify it as an assault weapon.
They also seized 31 large-capacity magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition and all the parts to assemble one AR-10 semi-automatic rifle, 3 AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, and 1 AR-9 semi-automatic rifle, all with characteristics of an assault weapon.
Also recovered during the search were four additional complete polymer-based lower receivers, approximately 670 rounds of ammunition of various calibers, including 9mm and 10mm and several firearm-related components, parts, and equipment for assembling and manufacturing ghost guns.
Ghost guns are firearms that can be sold in pieces online and then assembled to create deadly weapons that are naturally difficult to track due to the absence of serial numbers.
“We will not let up in our pursuit of ridding the streets of Queens of illegal guns,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “These tools of death have no place in our communities.”
Queens Supreme Court Justice Toni Cimino sentenced McMillan to five and one-half years in prison to be followed by five years post-release supervision.
Since being created by Katz in August 2021, the Crime Strategies and Intelligence Unit has recovered 242 firearms including 141 ghost guns; 102 semi-automatic handguns; 35 assault weapons; 4 machine guns and 1 semi-automatic shotgun.
The unit also recovered 83 complete ghost gun kits; 821 high-capacity magazines; 42 silencers; 10 bullet-resistant body armor vests and more than 110,000 rounds of ammunition, according to the DA’s office.
