Dallas Man Found With 10 Machineguns Charged With Gun Crimes

A federal grand jury indicted a Dallas man for gun and drug crimes after he was discovered with multiple unlawful machineguns, as well as heroin and cocaine, following an investigation by the ATF, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox.

Ramon Navarro, III – aka Trae Alvarez – was charged with four counts of possession of an unregistered firearm and eight counts of distribution of a controlled substance. He has been ordered detained pending trial.

According to court documents, Mr. Navarro, 21, allegedly possessed at least four standalone machinegun conversion sears, three-piece devices designed to convert semiautomatic weapons into machineguns.

He also allegedly possessed at least six Glock pistols with incorporated sears, which effectively transformed the Glocks into machineguns.

“This defendant attempted to circumvent our nation’s gun laws by converting legal firearms into unlawful machineguns,” said U.S. Attorney Nealy Cox. “Machineguns have no place on the streets of Dallas. Using federal firearm laws to reduce gun violence is among the Justice Department’s highest priorities.”

“When firearms and drugs can be readily obtained in an underground market, the challenge of reducing violence in our communities is much greater,” stated ATF Dallas Field Division Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey C. Boshek II. “Individuals who bypass regulations designed to protect our communities fuel the devastation possible when firearms end up in the hands of prohibited persons as well as impede justice for the victims.”

Unlike semiautomatic firearms, machineguns – weapons that can shoot more than one shot, without manual reloading, by single function of the trigger – are generally unlawful for civilians under the National Firearms Act.

In a criminal complaint filed in October, an undercover ATF agent alleged that Mr. Navarro sold him at least three of the converted Glocks for roughly $1,500 apiece, and even demonstrated one firearm’s functionality as a machinegun.  

All of the machinegun conversion sears in Mr. Navarro’s possession lacked serial numbers and were of unknown origin.  

An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Dallas Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda Requénez is prosecuting the case.  

This case was prosecuted under Project Guardian, a Department of Justice initiative aimed at reducing gun violence by enforcing federal firearm laws through coordination between the federal government and state and local law enforcement.