A Dorchester man who treated supermarket and gas station parking lots like his own private gun shop has pleaded guilty in federal court to trafficking firearms, including so-called ghost guns. Joshua Morency, 28, admitted Monday in U.S. District Court to one count of dealing in firearms without a license and one count of possessing a machinegun. U.S. Senior District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton scheduled sentencing for June 25, 2026, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts.
Prosecutors say Morency sold 16 privately made ghost guns, and investigators ultimately counted 17 firearms that changed hands in undercover buys during a probe that started in August 2025.
According to a court affidavit filed in November 2025, agents carried out multiple audio- and video-recorded controlled purchases between August and October 2025. The filing states Morency delivered guns in boxes to an undercover buyer, in deals that ranged from single pistols to multi-gun packages and added up to thousands of dollars in government cash.
How the sting unfolded
Several of the weapons were outfitted with Machinegun Conversion Devices, or MCDs, and Morency told the undercover buyer some of the firearms were “fully auto,” a detail highlighted in the charging documents, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts.
Agents did not have to look far for the alleged crime scenes. Reporting from Boston.com notes that some of the undercover buys took place in a Stop & Shop parking lot and at a Shell gas station lot in Dorchester.
Penalties and next steps
The firearms-dealing charge carries a maximum of five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. The machinegun possession count is punishable by up to ten years in prison, three years of supervised release and a similar fine, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts. Prosecutors said the case was brought under the criminal provisions of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
Federal authorities in Massachusetts have increasingly leaned on federal statutes to go after ghost-gun dealing and machinegun conversions, and recent cases have produced multi-year sentences. Last month, for example, prosecutors secured a lengthy prison term in a Brockton case that involved machinegun conversions and a large narcotics seizure, according to a recent report on the lengthy prison term in a Brockton case.
Morency remains in federal custody while prosecutors prepare sentencing recommendations and gather victim-impact information. As reported by Boston 25 News, the plea and case details were announced by U.S. Attorney Leah Foley, with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and state police.
