2 indicted in alleged sale of adaptive gun device
Two Boston men have been indicted on federal charges that they sold machine gun conversion devices to a cooperating witness working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, according to US Attorney Rachael S. Rollins’s office and court documents.
Elijah Navarro, 24, and Michael Wilkerson, 22, were each indicted last week on one count of engaging in the business of a manufacturer or dealer in unregistered firearms, federal prosecutors said.
Navarro was also indicted on two counts of transferring or possessing a machine gun, Rollins’s office said in a statement Monday, while Wilkerson was charged with one count. Navarro’s lawyer declined to comment and Wilkerson’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Mr. Navarro and Mr. Wilkerson allegedly possessed unregistered machine gun conversion devices that turn already deadly firearms into weapons of war,” Rollins said. “Our city is far too familiar with the deadly and devastating effects of gun violence ... Every case we charge that removes an illegal firearm, conversion device or ammunition from the streets of Boston and Massachusetts and ultimately holds prohibited users accountable matters.”
In January, Navarro agreed to sell 12 machine gun conversion devices to the cooperating witness for $1,700, federal prosecutors said. The devices, known as “switches” or “Glock chips,” convert “certain firearms from semiautomatic to fully automatic, thus rendering the firearms capable of firing multiple shots by a single function of the trigger,” an ATF affidavit said.
Navarro allegedly sold two of the devices to the witness for $400 and then allegedly sold the witness 10 more out of Wilkerson’s residence for another $1,300, prosecutors said.
The men were arrested last month and are currently free on bond, records show. They are scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.
The affidavit said federal authorities and Boston police began investigating Navarro for his alleged “involvement in a firearms manufacturing and trafficking operation.”
The cooperating witness who bought the conversion devices has “reliably” provided information against dozens of federal defendants, the affidavit said.
When authorities searched Wilkerson’s residence on Feb. 16, the affidavit said, he allegedly admitted after a Miranda warning that he was involved in making conversion devices and selling them.
“It is this type of cooperative effort with our federal partners at the ATF and the US Attorney’s Office that allows us to take dangerous individuals off our streets and to lessen the availability of high-powered firearms in our city,” Boston Police Commissioner Michael A. Cox said.