Rio Rancho Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Firearms Offenses

ALBUQUERQUE – Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, and Eric McLoughlin, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations - El Paso, announced today that Peter Ryan Lynch pleaded guilty in federal court to one count each of possession of a firearm not registered with the national firearms registration and transfer records and illegal receipt of an imported firearm. Lynch, 46, of Rio Rancho, will remain in custody pending sentencing, which has not been set.

A federal grand jury indicted Lynch on May 18, 2023. According to publicly available court documents, on April 20, 2023, during the execution of a search warrant at Lynch’s residence in Rio Rancho, law enforcement officers located two silencers. In his plea agreement, Lynch admitted that he had ordered them online and that he did not have the proper legal authorization to possess them as he did not have permission from the Attorney General of the United States to import them and they were not registered to Lynch in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

At sentencing Lynch faces up to 10 years in prison.

Homeland Security Investigations investigated this case with assistance from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and New Mexico State Police. Assistant United States Attorney Jon K. Stanford is prosecuting the case.

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