NEW YORK — A police officer in New York made dozens of illegal handguns and assault rifles, then sold them to criminals, including members of outlaw motorcycle groups, investigators said.
Gregg Marinelli, 38, who was a sergeant with the city's Department of Environmental Protection Police, was arrested Thursday and charged with six felonies, including criminal sale of a firearm, criminal possession of a weapon and manufacture/disposition of a weapon, according to New York State Police.
Investigators started looking into Marinelli after he tipped off a member of an outlaw motorcycle group that he was a target of a drug investigation. Marinelli was not charged in that incident, investigators said.
Marinelli assembled guns at his Plattekill house, then would sell them to people who had criminal convictions that bar them from possessing weapons.
Investigators said many of the weapons were “ghost” guns, which have no serial numbers and are virtually untraceable. Other weapons had the serial numbers removed.
He sometimes delivered weapons to the buyers while driving his unmarked police car, investigators said.
Investigators recovered 13 handguns and assault rifles, tools to build firearms and numerous other weapons during a search of Marinelli’s Plattekill house.
Marinelli is in jail, being held on $600,000 bond.