A federal inmate released from a Louisiana prison last week is back behind bars after prosecutors in New York say police caught him running a black market gun trade through a phone smuggled into his cell.
Hayden Espinosa, 24, allegedly moderated a Telegram group named “3D Amendment,” a hub for 3D printing and trading guns and gun modifications, including auto sears, which authorities described as “illegal machine gun conversion devices.” …
While behind bars, Espinosa allegedly sold a gun, silencers and auto sears to an undercover NYPD officer who was monitoring the Telegram group, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged at a news briefing Tuesday morning.
“While incarcerated, Hayden Espinosa allegedly sold guns and gun parts by using contraband electronic devices,” Bragg said in a statement. “Furthermore, we alleged Espinosa operated a Telegram channel that is a hub of ethnically and racially motivated extremist ideology.”
Espinosa allegedly shipped the items through the U.S. Postal Service. Photos posted on the 3D Amendment Instagram page show packed and labeled parcels.
Espinosa is due back in court June 24 for an arraignment on four counts of transporting a firearm, machine gun, silencer or disguised gun and one count of attempted criminal sale of a firearm in the third degree.
His contraband cellphones have been confiscated.
— Michael Ruiz in Federal Inmate Caught Running Black Market Machine Gun Trade Behind Bars, Authorities Say
Gun laws keep guns out of criminal hands…just as effectively jails/prisons keep drugs and cell phone out of criminal hands