2 plead guilty in ghost gun case

CRIME

Sentencing to be held in 2025 for L.A. County men who used Instagram to sell illegal arms

Two Los Angeles County men pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges for their roles in a scheme that used Instagram to sell more than 60 firearms, including unregistered “ghost guns” and machine gun conversion devices known as “Glock switches.”

Salvador Lopez, 24, of Whittier entered his plea to two counts: engaging in the business of dealing in firearms without a license and aggravated robbery of money of the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Ivan Quintos, 27, of Azusa pleaded guilty to one count of firearms trafficking.

Lopez’s sentencing hearing is set for Jan. 6, while Quintos is expected to be sentenced on Feb. 3, prosecutors said.

The pair were charged in Los Angeles federal court in May along with Henderson, Nevada residents Mark Perez, 22, and Zachary Dry, 23. According to the 11-count indictment, from July 2023 to May, Perez and the other defendants used Instagram to coordinate and sell more than five dozen firearms.

The weapons, some stolen, included ghost guns and Glock switches as well as firearms with obliterated serial numbers, court papers say. Perez is scheduled to plead guilty to federal charges on Friday and Dry will enter his plea on Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles.

The illegal firearm sales occurred in North Hollywood, Las Vegas, and elsewhere, the indictment states. Federal prosecutors said Perez, Quintos, Lopez and Dry are not federal firearms licensees and not allowed to sell firearms.

The indictment says that Perez is prohibited from possessing firearms due to his 2021 misdemeanor conviction in Nevada for domestic violence, and that Dry is prohibited from possessing firearms due to prior felony convictions for assault and battery in Nevada last year.

Perez also is charged with four counts of being a prohibited person in possession of firearms and ammunition, one count of possessing a firearm with a removed or altered serial number, and one count of possession of a machine gun. Dry was also charged with possessing a firearm as a felon, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.