5 charged in alleged Queens gun trafficking ring, NY attorney general says

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a 625-count indictment on Wednesday against five people for their alleged participation in an illegal gun trafficking operation that sold dozens of guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in Queens.

Law enforcement recovered 86 guns in an investigation that began late last year, uncovering 55 untraceable “ghost guns” and 25 assault weapons, according to prosecutors. The defendants are accused of buying the guns in Indiana and Long Island and then storing and selling them in Queens.

At one point, two of the defendants hid 12 guns and multiple high-capacity magazines in a guitar case in a garage in Elmhurst, and one of them used the case to bring the weapons to customers, James’ office said. One of the alleged weapon sales happened outside a smoke shop in Jackson Heights where one of the defendants worked, according to the indictment .

The indictment charges East Elmhurst resident Satveer Saini, Richmond Hill resident Hargeny Fernandez-Gonzalez, Astoria resident Adam Youssef Senhaji-Rivas, Long Island City resident Mateo Castro-Agudelo, and Greenwood, Indiana resident Milanjit Sidhu with conspiracy, criminal sale of a firearm and criminal possession of a firearm, among other charges. Prosecutors said all five defendants are between 20 and 21 years old and face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

“When gun traffickers flood neighborhoods with untraceable firearms, they fuel violence that tears communities apart,” James said in a statement. “This investigation successfully stopped a dangerous gun trafficking operation by removing dozens of ghost guns and assault weapons from our streets.”

Saini’s lawyer, James Andrew Kilduff, said his client denies the allegations and is looking forward to defending against the charges.

Attorneys for Fernandez-Gonzalez and Castro-Agudelo did not immediately return requests for comment, while attorney information for Senhaji-Rivas and Sidhu was not immediately available.

Court records show Castro-Agudelo has pleaded not guilty to the charges and was remanded without bail. Fernandez-Gonzalez has pleaded not guilty and his bail was set at $2 million cash or $5 million insured bond or partially secured surety bond, according to the records, and Saini has pleaded not guilty and was remanded without bail.

Among other allegations, prosecutors said Saini, Fernandez-Gonzalez and Senhaji-Rivas paid more than $27,000 for firearms from Indiana, which has less restrictive gun laws than New York. Saini and Castro-Agudelo were caught driving from Indiana to Queens with nine handguns when they were stopped for speeding by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the indictment states. After that, Fernandez-Gonzalez allegedly started paying Sidhu to drive weapons from Indianapolis to Queens.

Fernandez-Gonzalez is accused of buying 3-D printed ghost guns in Nassau County and bringing them to Queens for his accomplices to sell. Prosecutors said Saini sold the firearms at different locations throughout Queens, including Louis C. Moser Playground in Jackson Heights on a weekday afternoon and the parking lot of Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst.

Recovering ghost guns and prosecuting their alleged traffickers has been a priority for James’ office, which announced another multi-defendant takedown of a gun and narcotics trafficking ring in New York City in March 2023.