Pair of Southland men plead guilty to ghost gun scheme

LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Two Southern California men have pleaded guilty in a conspiracy that operated an illegal business that built and sold unserialized AR-15-type firearms — commonly referred to as “ghost guns” — capable of accepting high-capacity magazines, federal prosecutors announced, Friday.

The week before they were scheduled to go on trial, the defendants each pleaded guilty, Thursday, to a charge of conspiracy to engage in the business of manufacturing and dealing in firearms without a license, according to the US Attorney’s Office.

The two defendants are Travis Schlotterbeck, 37, of Fountain Valley, and James Bradley Vlha, 29, of Norco. The scheme was based at two Bellflower businesses controlled by Schlotterbeck called Sign Imaging and Live Fire Coatings. Neither the businesses nor the defendants had a federal firearms license to engage in the manufacture or sale of firearms.

According to documents filed in Los Angeles federal court, Schlotterbeck and Vlha admitted that they took custom orders for AR-15-type firearms — rifles and pistols — which they then manufactured and sold to undercover operatives with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

As part of the scheme that lasted from 2015 through 2017, Schlotterbeck and Vlha sold six of the ghost guns to ATF undercover agents and a confidential informant, in 2015 and 2016, charging from $1,500 to $2,000 for each firearm. Both men were charged in a federal grand jury indictment filed, in 2019.

In addition to the conspiracy count, Schlotterbeck pleaded guilty to one count of selling a firearm to a convicted felon in relation to the sale of an AR-15-type rifle to the informant while being aware that the informant had previously been convicted of a felony offense, according to prosecutors.