9 men charged in Montgomery County gun trafficking ring officials say offered criminals 'one-stop shopping'

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — A “sophisticated” gun-trafficking ring that sold weapons in eight Pennsylvania counties has come to an end with the arrest of nine men charged for their alleged roles in the organization, announced on Tuesday.

The suspects are accused of offering up “one-stop shopping” for criminals by illegally buying and selling guns from stores around the state and 3-D printing and selling untraceable “ghost guns,” silencers and switches — which Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele says allow a semi-automatic handgun to fire 30 rounds in a matter of seconds with one pull of the trigger.

“The risk that we're dealing with here, to all community members, and to our law enforcement officers across the state of Pennsylvania and across the United States is simply immeasurable,” said Steele, standing with Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry between two tables covered with dozens of the weapons and related items recovered in the investigation.

“You have a ghost gun, you have semi-automatic weapons, you have suppressors. Alright, so what is being put out there are silent machine guns. Silent machine guns,” Steele said.

“We're probably just scratching the surface on the damage that this gun trafficking organization was doing. And why this is about money. This is about greed.”

Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry said she and other officials are pushing for laws that would make certain gun parts illegal.

"We need more legislation. There has to be some changes. There is no need for these switches to exist. This organization was set up to make rapid killing machines," Henry said.

“When you think about what they could do, and what that could do to a community, you realize how devastating this organization was. And make no mistake about it. This was a sophisticated organization.”

Some of the guns recovered in the investigation came from search warrants, according to officials, and others were recovered from criminal incidents.

“This criminal organization’s aim was to profit from providing criminals with firearms altered to achieve optimal destruction while avoiding law enforcement detection. … Every firearm that is illegally trafficked is a direct threat to public safety.”

A bill that would have criminalized the possession, manufacture or sale of a switch failed by one vote in the Pennsylvania House earlier this year.

Steele, who is the legislative chair of the Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Association, is asking state lawmakers to revisit the issue. He emphasizes, the move to ban switches has nothing to do with the rights of people who own guns legally.

“This is a device that is making semi-automatics into machine guns that are causing the death of lots of different people.”

The gun trafficking ring was operating out of Pottstown, where seven of the nine suspects live: James Hiller, 18; Maleec Borders, 23; Ryan Stoudt, 25; Keith Chaney, 26; Michael Needling, 28; Desmond Bennett, 32; and Horace Keiffer, 36. Nathaniel Arroyo, 27, is from Birdsboro, and Lucas Groff, 28, is from Boyertown.

All nine suspects face various charges, including felony counts of corrupt organization, dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activity, aggravated assault, and several offenses related to the illegal purchase, possession and sale of firearms.