Police uncover ‘ghost gun’ manufacturer in Hamilton
Hamilton police say they have uncovered an alleged ghost gun" manufacturer in the city, someone accused of using a 3D printer to make guns used in crime.
It's a first for Hamilton police, says Det. Sgt. Greg Slack, who oversees the gang and weapons enforcement unit. But he says it's part of a new and alarming trend in Ontario and beyond where police are finding 3D-printed guns and firearms that are being modified.
The case began earlier this year when Hamilton police were contacted by the United States Department of Homeland Security and Canada Border Services Agency about a suspicious shipment of gun parts that had been intercepted.
Legally manufactured handguns are made with a polymer base, while the top part of the gun, including the barrel, is metal. With ghost guns, Slack said, the bottom part is made of a plastic material called filament from a 3D printer.
It took about two months from the time Hamilton police were flagged by U.S. and border officials for detectives to find the alleged manufacturing site.
One person was arrested and charged. Police said they couldn't provide details of the operation, because the case is before the courts.
Hamilton police have seized a ghost gun once in the last few years - it was discovered by a patrol officer. But this recent case is unusual because they found the alleged manufacturer.
It's quite impactful and alarming," Slack said.
Ghost guns are concerning because they're untraceable. Most crime guns seized by police come from the U.S. where they're legally purchased and then smuggled across the border. They usually have their serial number filed off, but officials in Ontario have a good track record of recovering that serial number, including by using a unique acid wash.
Slack said there is only one reason why a criminal would want an untraceable gun, and that's to use it, likely to shoot someone. That's why 3D-printed guns have a higher value on the street. A gun smuggled from the U.S. might fetch upwards of $2,500, while a ghost gun sells for $5,000.
But there are also additional safety concerns about ghost guns, specifically about the risk of low quality plastic, which could lead to the gun falling apart or even exploding when fired.
Hamilton police seized 204 guns in 2021, and 116 were sent for analysis. Of those, 61 were handguns, 32 were traced to the U.S. and 30 were from Canada. That year saw a record number of seizures of guns across Ontario.
Guns that come from Canada are often stolen or go missing after being legally purchased. In 2021, the U.S. guns seized by Hamilton police came from Florida, Georgia and Ohio. But Slack said many the guns being seized so far this year came from Ohio and Texas.
It's not clear what's behind the shift to Texas, other than opportunity.
Along with the ghost gun bust, local gang and weapon detectives also seized what are known as auto sears. These small, quarter-sized, illegal devices have the ability to turn a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic. Even more concerning is the ability to add an extended magazine - in street culture it's called a 30 stick - that allows a handgun to rapid-fire an additional 30 rounds.
Det. Mike Kinniburgh said in a case earlier this year they found an auto sear affixed to a gun with the extended magazine, along with four other auto sears ready to be sold.
These devices turn a handgun into the world's smallest machine gun" that can be concealed in a waistband.
In this case, detectives were also concerned because the devices were not made with a 3D printer, but were metal and had to have been made a machine shop.
This suggests a level of sophistication" indicative or more organized crime, Kinniburgh said.
Hamilton has had 25 shootings so far this year, including one homicide. There were 36 in 2021, 51 in 2020 and 47 in 2019.
Slack credits the hard work of detectives and officers across the service for taking guns and criminals off the streets, and reducing the number of shootings. This includes several recent special projects that saw police seize a significant number of guns. Slack says front-line patrol officers are also crucial to their success, because they are out there gathering intelligence that can be used to build investigations.
Increasingly, police are using analysts, who are constantly looking for hot spots and gun crime trends so detectives can target those areas or players.
Hamilton shootings typically involve what police call disorganized crime," a group of people who work together, often drug trafficking. These groups are not the organized street gangs from television, but more fluid groups that often have shifting allegiances.
Hamilton police see shootings over drug territory disputes, retaliation for other shootings, conflicts over girlfriends, or even perceived insults on social media.
In recent years, police services across Ontario and into the U.S. have also become better at sharing information. While Hamilton and Toronto have always had a criminal connection, police are seeing movement between Hamilton and more remote communities lately, including North Bay and Sudbury.
The drug market in those communities is wide open, with less competition and higher profits, Slack said. Criminals who are known to police in Hamilton are not known to police in those communities and those police services tend to have smaller drug and gun crime units.
That's why sharing information with other police services, and through provincial gun tasks forces, is so important.
Hamilton police commonly see criminal groups share guns, and some more organized groups have been known to equip their drug traffickers with guns - almost as if they're being issued a service gun. In recent years, it has become even easier to access illegal guns. Slack said there have been cases where crime guns are sold by auction in private social media chats.
Nicole O'Reilly is a crime and justice reporter at The Spectator. noreilly@thespec.com