The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Gun Violence Task Force arrested a Campbell man for manufacturing ghost guns and parts that turn popular handguns into machine guns.
Prosecutors said that Alfred Amaya, 28, and on probation for domestic violence, has been charged with more than 30 felonies, including possession of a machine gun, manufacturing machine guns, and felony possession of a weapon.
When members of the task force searched his apartment last week, they found loaded weapons, multiple parts that transform guns into automatic weapons, and a 3D printer busy creating weapons parts for rifles, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Amaya also was charged with child endangerment. Evidence showed that Amaya’s dangerous arsenal was in easy reach of two young children living in the apartment.
Amaya was arraigned Friday in the Hall of Justice in San Jose. If convicted, the defendant faces a long term in prison.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen thanked the agencies who took part in the operation: the SJPD “Ghost” team, the Santa Clara Police Department, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, the County Adult Probation Department and DA Investigators.
“Our task force shut down a busy criminal ghost machine gun factory in the middle of an apartment building,” Rosen said. “The defendant’s 3D printer created guns that could be used for robberies and murders, is now out of order. The defendant who was flooding our community with illegal weapons is now behind bars.”
The arrest was part of a countywide domestic violence probation sweep.
When task force members entered the prohibited person’s home, they found the 3D gun printer still working inside a closet, two loaded weapons, three nearly finished weapons, and 35 machine gun conversion devices. All of the weapons were considered “ghost guns” – made and sold with no serial number to avoid tracing and detection.
The county Gun Violence Task Force is leading the state in using a special restraining order to temporarily seize weapons from felons, the suicidal, gang members, and domestic violence murders and mass shootings.
This case will be prosecuted by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Crime Strategies Unit, a team that specializes in the prosecution of firearm manufacturers and violent offenders.
Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed a law making it illegal to sell Glocks and other semiautomatic firearms that can be easily converted to a machine gun with “Switches” – a mechanical device that turns the popular handgun and other weapons into a machine gun capable of firing multiple bullets in seconds and with no pause.
