Federal prosecutors say a 47-year-old East Boston man turned his apartment into a small-scale ghost gun workshop, complete with a 3-D printer and machine-gun conversion parts, before a federal grand jury indicted him on multiple gun charges. Agents allegedly uncovered the setup during a March 31 search, and the defendant is being held in federal custody ahead of a hearing set for May 6, 2026.
Indictment and raid details
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, Angel Negron was indicted on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of possession of a machinegun. Prosecutors say investigators executing a search warrant on March 31 seized three privately made firearms, four machine-gun conversion devices, a 3-D printer, five magazines and 31 privately made firearm receivers from his East Boston apartment. Negron, who was arrested earlier this spring, remains detained pending the May 6 hearing, according to the office.
How prosecutors say the case developed
Prosecutors say they followed a trail of online orders that led straight to Negron’s door, as reported by Boston.com. Court documents allege that multiple firearm parts purchases were linked to Negron’s eBay account, and that on March 3, 2026, he messaged a firearms seller and included a photo of a gun with a 3-D-printed frame. Investigators say Negron ordered 29 firearm parts shipped to his apartment between January 14 and March 2, 2026. Those transactions and the photograph are cited in the charging documents that underpinned the search warrant.
Prior record and prosecution
Federal filings indicate Negron is not new to the criminal justice system. He was convicted in Suffolk Superior Court in 2007 of possession of a firearm without a license and carrying a loaded firearm, and received a 30-month sentence, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts. The office says Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael E. Robinson is prosecuting the new federal case. Prosecutors have emphasized that the allegations in the charging documents have not been proven in court.
Legal consequences
If a jury finds Negron guilty, the stakes are high. The felon-in-possession charge carries a statutory maximum of up to 15 years in prison, and the machine-gun possession count carries up to 10 years, along with potential supervised release and fines, as reported by Boston.com. Any eventual sentence would be imposed by a federal judge under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
A wider enforcement push
The case lands in the middle of a broader federal push against ghost guns and machine-gun conversion devices. In January, authorities seized two websites that allegedly shipped conversion “switches” from China, according to The Boston Globe. Local law-enforcement raids across the region have also turned up untraceable firearms and parts, as detailed in a recent roundup of local ghost gun raids, underscoring how officials say the problem crosses city lines.
Negron is scheduled to appear in federal court on May 6, 2026. The charges are allegations, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
