Green Bay man sentenced for 3D printing, trafficking 'ghost guns'
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (WLUK) -- A was sentenced Monday to federal prison for manufacturing and trafficking "ghost guns" out of his Green Bay home.
Mitchell Guerrero, 30, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison and three years' supervised released for 3D printing the guns -- which lack serial numbers, making them impossible to trace.
Guerrero was creating the plastic guns in his basement.
The Brown County Drug Task Force searched Guerrero's home in November, 2021. Investigators discovered the 3D-printing lab as well as a fully functional 3D-printed handgun. They also found magazines and rounds, silencers, a "sear" that can convert an AR-15 rifle into a fully automatic weapon -- all 3D printed. Investigators found evidence that Guerrero offered to sell ghost guns and traded one for methamphetamine. They also saw evidence that he was beginning to 3D print an AR-15.
The plastic handgun was sent to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Firearms Technology Criminal Branch, where it was successfully fired. During another test, the gun successfully went through Transportation Safety Administration without setting off the metal detector's alarm.
The U.S. Department of Justice says this is the first known fully operational plastic gun seized by ATF that has successfully passed through a TSA metal detector.
