Chelsea Assault Victim's Phone Leads to Salem Arrests

Chelsea Assault Victim's Tracked Phone Leads Police to Salem

After an assault in Chelsea, police electronically tracked a stolen phone to Salem, where officers pulled over a Honda Accord and arrested three people.

According to the Chelsea Police Department, the victim made an initial report of an assault in Chelsea. Police tracked the stolen phone electronically to Salem.

Salem police located and stopped the Honda while it was traveling through the city, with Massachusetts State Police assisting in the stop, the release states. Officers arrested the driver and two passengers at the scene before the vehicle was towed back to the Chelsea Police Department for processing.

Who Was Arrested

The department identified the two adults taken into custody as 19-year-old Fermin Franklin Juarez of Lynn and 20-year-old Carlos Ruben Palencia of Lawrence. A third suspect, described only as a juvenile male from Lynn, was also arrested; police did not release his name or age.

Officers searching the Honda recovered four firearms and ammunition, the release says. The haul included a 9mm Glock 19 fitted with a red dot optic, a 9mm 3D-printed ghost gun, a .40-caliber Glock 22 equipped with a machine gun conversion kit, and a .380-caliber Taurus PT 738. Police also seized numerous rounds of ammunition, including a 50-round drum magazine.

The reported machine-gun conversion kit also falls within a category addressed by that 2024 legislation. The act expanded Massachusetts’ definition of a machine gun to include a firearm modified for automatic fire, including through an automatic-conversion part. The police release identifies the recovered item as a conversion kit but does not state whether it was tested or whether prosecutors will allege a specific firearms offense. The enacted law’s definition covers firearms modified by automatic conversion.

The seizure comes amid a state effort to regulate privately made firearms. A 2024 Massachusetts law brought privately made guns, including 3D-printed firearms, under provisions addressing so-called ghost guns and required registration and serialization for frames and receivers. The law’s passage made such weapons an explicit focus of the state’s firearms rules, though the police account does not say what charges, if any, will be filed in this case. The state’s summary of the 2024 law describes its provisions for privately made firearms.