Grass Valley man sentenced to 5 years for trafficking ‘ghost’ guns
A Grass Valley man was sentenced to five years in prison Friday by a U.S. District Court judge for the unlawful manufacturing and dealing of “ghost” guns, according to the federal Department of Justice.
Michael Paul Grisham Smith, 44, was arrested earlier this year after contacting a firearms vendor on the darknet, a part of the internet accessible only through specialized anonymity-providing tools, seeking to sell AR-15-style firearms without serial numbers, a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The vendor on the darknet turned out to be an undercover law enforcement agent working for Homeland Security Investigations. Between Dec. 1 and Feb. 15, Smith manufactured and sold eight AR-15-style firearms without serial numbers to the undercover agent in exchange for payment in bitcoin.
Smith’s case resulted from an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.