A federal jury in Sacramento has convicted Ruby Celly Uribe, 37, a former member of the California National Guard, of unlawfully possessing a machine gun and an unregistered short-barreled rifle. Prosecutors told jurors that the firearms case pulled back the curtain on broader allegations, including claims that Uribe trafficked untraceable "ghost guns" to colleagues and warned a known drug dealer about planned raids while assigned to a counterdrug task force. The verdict has sharpened concerns about illegal weapons moving through informal networks and the abuse of sensitive operational access.
In a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, investigators said they recovered from Uribe’s home a short-barreled rifle that had been modified to fire in full-automatic mode and that lacked a serial number, characteristics prosecutors say make it a ghost gun. The release adds that cellphone data recovered in the probe showed Uribe trafficked non-serialized, short-barreled machine guns, including a transaction to a coworker on July 20, 2022.
Cellphone text messages recovered during the investigation showed Uribe sharing the time and location of possible drug raids and how many units would respond, as jurors heard during the trial. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, prosecutors also presented images and messages showing she offered illegal firearms for sale in mid-2022 and that another firearm she offered on Aug. 11, 2022, was purchased and later recovered.
Prosecutors' account
Prosecutors told the jury that Uribe worked in the logistics shop at the California National Guard headquarters in Mather and served on the Counterdrug Task Force, which supports local and federal interdiction efforts. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives led the probe with help from the California Military Department and safely recovered additional illegal weapons while preparing for trial.
Legal consequences
Uribe is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins on Sept. 11, 2026, and faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the Los Angeles Times reported. The actual sentence will be determined by the court after consideration of federal sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
Why it matters
The case highlights a broader national problem. Recoveries of privately made firearms have surged in recent years, prompting coordinated federal enforcement and state-level rules, largely because ghost guns lack serial numbers and are difficult to trace. For background on that trend and legal efforts to restrict ghost-gun sales, see analysis from the Giffords Law Center.
The prosecution was carried by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adrian T. Kinsella and Nicole M. Vanek, and the case was pursued as part of a broader federal push against gun trafficking and leaks of sensitive operational information. The conviction adds to a string of recent federal cases targeting the manufacture, sale and conversion of unserialized weapons.
