SACRAMENTO, Calif. — -(AmmoLand.com)- A federal grand jury returned a single-count indictment today against Juan Manriquez, 20, of Antioch, and Andrew Tuma, 19, of Sacramento, charging them with unlawful manufacturing and dealing in firearms, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
According to court documents, Tuma used the Snapchat app to advertise narcotics and guns for sale. Law enforcement used undercover officers and a confidential informant to buy guns from Tuma. Tuma is 19 years old and cannot legally purchase a gun in the state of California.
Instead, Tuma ordered kits from the internet, including from a company called Polymer80, a licensed firearms manufacturer in Nevada, and manufactured his own firearms and then sold the guns.
As part of the undercover investigation, law enforcement purchased firearms from Manriquez. Manriquez sold both commercially manufactured guns that had been converted to machine guns and privately made firearms without serial numbers (commonly called “ghost guns”).
This case is the product of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Western El Dorado Narcotics Enforcement Team. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Lee is prosecuting the case.
If convicted, Tuma and Manriquez face a maximum statutory penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
This case is being prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally-based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
ATF is the federal law enforcement agency responsible for investigating violations of the federal firearms and explosives laws and regulations. More information about ATF and its programs can be found at www.atf.gov.
