A Rockaway Park man was criminally charged with a slew of crimes after an arsenal of more than 30 firearms, including ghost guns and assault weapons, was uncovered along with thousands of rounds of ammunition and other weapons-related paraphernalia were seized during a raid at his home on Beach 117th Street on Wednesday.
Ryszard Materna, 51, was arraigned Thursday before Queens Criminal Court Judge Germaine Auguste on a 281-count complaint after a long-term investigation into his purchase of polymer-based firearm components that can easily be assembled into operable weapons, known as ghost guns.
According to the charges, Materna placed numerous orders for firearm components, accessories, and ammunition, which were shipped to an address in Pennsylvania and to his home in Rockaway Park.
On Apr. 17, officers from the NYPD and the Queens District Attorney’s Detective Bureau executed a court-authorized search warrant at Materna’s residence. They recovered five loaded, fully assembled .223-caliber semi-automatic AR-15 style ghost gun assault rifles, two fully loaded fully assembled .45-caliber semiautomatic ghost gun pistols, four loaded fully assembled 5.56-caliber semi-automatic AR-15 style ghost gun assault rifles, and a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun and other firearms. They also recovered 107 high-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammo, two silencers, assorted tools used to manufacture ghost guns, and 5,000 rounds of assorted 9 mm, .300- and 5.56-caliber ammunition.