A 40-year-old man from Los Angeles was convicted by a federal jury for a scheme involving the illegal sale of 27 guns, including a “Glock switch,” which transforms a semiautomatic firearm into a machine gun, authorities announced Tuesday.
William Nirion Peña, a resident of Koreatown, was found guilty of conspiracy to engage in the business of dealing firearms without a license at the end of his five-day trial, according to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office.
During the trial, prosecutors showed that Peña provided a substantial amount of ammunition and an estimated 10 guns to a co-conspirator, identified as 32-year-old Ellourth Eladio Simon, who then sold the firearms, which included two silencers without serial numbers and the Glock switch, to an undercover agent.
Simon, a resident of L.A. Mid-City neighborhood, pleaded guilty in May to a count of engaging in the business of dealing firearms without a license and another count of possessing a machine gun. The 32-year-old admitted that he was involved in eight illegal gun transactions, some involving multiple firearms. One of those sales, in Nov. 2021, involved the sale of four handguns and a “ghost gun” AR-type rifle for nearly $8,500 to an undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Prosecutors said that between at least Sept. 2021 and Feb. 2022, Peña fed Simon with information regarding the prices and nature of different firearms, very often providing Simon with photographs of the guns that Simon could sell to his customers.
“Peña and Simon frequently coordinated efforts to sell [guns to the undercover agent] by communication over the phone about the price and availability of firearms and firearms components, and arranging the logistics of specific sales to customers during evening transaction in supermarket parking lots and similar locations,” according to court documents.
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Peña was getting his firearms from sources in Arizona, as well as other states.
Peña faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18.
Simon faces a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison as a result of his guilty plea and is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 15.
“This case is the result of an investigation by the Los Angeles Firearms Trafficking Strike Force, which is spearheaded by the ATF and the United States Attorney’s Office,” the release noted.
