9 charged in massive gun trafficking ring that spanned 8 counties in Pennsylvania (2024)

The investigation of a gun deal gone bad led to the dismantling of a massive gun trafficking ring in which 3D printers were used to make illegal weapons and parts that were sold in eight counties in Pennsylvania, officials announced Tuesday.

Léeloen español aquí

Michael Needling, 28, Keith Chaney, 26, James Hiller, 18, Desmond Bennett, 32, Maleec Borders, 23, Ryan Stoudt, 25, Horace Keiffer, 36, Lucas Groff, 28, and Nathaniel Arroyo, 27, were all arrested and charged for their alleged roles in the organization. Groff is from Boyertown, Pennsylvania, while Arroyo is from Birdsboro, investigators said. The seven other suspects are all from Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

The investigation began on Feb. 1, 2024, when Pottstown Police responded to Pottstown Hospital for a stabbing victim.

The victim, later identified as James Hiller, told police he was stabbed in the area of North Charlotte and Walnut streets in Pottstown following an argument over a small amount of marijuana, investigators said.

Investigators later determined Hiller was lying, however. Instead, they said, Hiller was stabbed in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, after he tried to sell an illegal firearm despite not being old enough to buy or own a handgun.

Officials also determined Keith Chaney was with Hiller when he was stabbed by an unidentified buyer.

As the investigation continued, officials identified more members of a gun trafficking organization that they said spanned Montgomery, Berks, Bucks, Chester, Columbia, Lehigh, Wayne and Westmoreland counties in Pennsylvania.

Multiple police departments throughout the Pennsylvania suburbs, Montgomery County detectives, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Gun Violence Task Force, the ATF, Pennsylvania State Police, Berks County detectives and the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Gun Violence Task Force all participated in the investigation.

Investigators used cellphone downloads and traced multiple purchases of firearms by the suspects through the Electronic Record of Sale (EROS) system as well as through hard copies of ATF and Pennsylvania State Police forms at gun stores, officials said. They also used surveillance footage, interviews and social media analysis as part of their investigation.

Investigators said the suspects bought 31 firearms from gun stores throughout Pennsylvania. The suspects built personally manufactured and untraceable firearms with no serial numbers, also known as “ghost guns,” by using a 3D-printing lab which they also utilized to create suppressors or silencers. The suspects also sold devices that were used to transform semi-automatic firearms into automatic machine guns.

The Montgomery County Detective Bureau conducted tests on a seized firearm with the add-on device and determined the gun was able to fire 18 rounds in 2.1 seconds.

“By illegally buying and selling store-bought firearms, this gun trafficking organization was arming criminals. That criminal activity alone threatens the safety of our communities. But this group went much further extending their criminal activities by selling switches to transform the semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic machine guns making them exponentially more deadly,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said. “Added to that were their 3D-printed suppressors and firearms ‘lowers’ to which they purchased receivers and other necessary parts to manufacture ghost guns—untraceable firearms with no serial number. So now we have ‘silent machine guns’ in our communities, some without serial numbers. The risk to community members and law enforcement officials across Montgomery County, across the Commonwealth and across the United States is simply unmeasurable.”

In text messages that were obtained during the investigation, the suspects offered a "buy one, get one free," deal to buyers, shared the locations of where to pick up the weapons and encouraged the buyers to use fake names, investigators said.

Investigators said they recovered 17 of the 31 guns that were purchased by the suspects. Some of those weapons were recovered during search warrants while others were recovered from past criminal incidents, according to officials.

One of the weapons was recovered by West Goshen Police in December 2019 after it was in the possession of a felon while another weapon was recovered by Pennsylvania State Police following a road rage incident in December 2022 in which shots were fired, investigators said.

Officials also said Chaney himself used one of the illegal weapons during another road rage incident in New Hanover Township back on May 29, 2024, in which he shot at a vehicle while riding a motorcycle, left the scene and then gave the gun to Groff.

“This criminal organization’s aim was to profit from providing criminals with firearms altered to achieve optimal destruction while avoiding law enforcement detection,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry said. “I applaud the calculated collaboration from law enforcement, which was necessary to uncover and take down what was a very sophisticated and dangerous network of offenders. Every firearm that is illegally trafficked is a direct threat to public safety, and my office is committed to removing those weapons from neighborhoods across the Commonwealth.”

Henry also said she and other officials are pushes for changes to laws that would make certain gun parts illegal.

"We need more legislation. There has to be some changes. There is no need for these switches to exist," Henry said. "This organization was set up to make rapid killing machines."

All nine suspects face various charges, including corrupt organization, dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activity, criminal use of a communications facility, aggravated assault, crimes committed with firearms, persons not to possess firearms, illegal sale or transfer of firearms, prohibited offensive weapons and criminal conspiracy.

They were all set to be arraigned on Tuesday, July 30.

Read the full criminal complaint on the case below: