A Harlem man was sentenced to five years in state prison after prosecutors said he spent months manufacturing 3D-printed guns in his apartment and test-firing them in Central Park, with one loaded 3D-printed pistol and dozens of gun parts left unsecured in bags and cardboard boxes while his children were home.
Roberto Guerrero, whom the Manhattan District Attorney's Office identified as 29 in its announcement of his indictment — though a seed report from PIX11 listed his age as 32 — pleaded guilty on September 17 to one count of attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, a class D felony. According to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, he was sentenced to five years in state prison followed by five years of post-release supervision.
Court documents cited by the DA's office say Guerrero began creating 3D-printed firearms and ordering firearm parts to his home beginning in at least September 2023. Per the same office, he allegedly test-fired some of the guns in Central Park on several occasions.
What Officers Found Inside the Harlem Apartment
Police arrived at Guerrero's door during the early-morning hours on March 20, 2024, according to PIX11's reporting on the court documents. Officers recovered a 3D-printed pistol loaded with seven rounds of ammunition, a 3D-printed assault weapon-style pistol, and 30 3D-printed pistol lower receivers, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said. A large-capacity ammunition-feeding device, a 3D printer, filament and other assembly tools were also recovered from the apartment.
The DA's office said the firearms and components were unsecured and accessible inside bags and cardboard boxes, and that Guerrero's children were home at the time the search warrant was executed. PIX11 reported that Guerrero had bought and sold gun parts on multiple websites and advertised his weapon designs through self-made videos, which depicted him test-firing weapons in Central Park.
Central Park Test Fires Caught on Video
Prosecutors said Guerrero recorded himself firing the weapons he had constructed in Central Park on five occasions, including two instances in which he fired assault weapons fitted with attached silencers — on December 8, 2023, and again on February 20, 2024, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. said Guerrero possessed dangerous weapons he manufactured inside his Harlem apartment. Bragg said his office is committed to confronting gun violence and stemming the flow of lethal, untraceable weapons, and that his office will hold accountable people who stockpile, manufacture or unlawfully possess firearms to keep Manhattanites safe.
Part of a Broader Ghost-Gun Trend in New York
Guerrero's case lands amid a wider pattern of 3D-printed firearm seizures across New York City. The NYPD had seized 199 ghost guns through August 10 of this year, compared with 168 during the same stretch last year and 304 during that period in 2024, according to Gothamist. NYPD data shows ghost-gun recoveries climbed from just 10 in 2020 to 293 in 2025.
An NYPD spokesperson told the outlet that police are still seeing an increase specifically in 3D-printed ghost guns, even as the broader decline in overall ghost-gun recoveries has been attributed to enforcement efforts, civil litigation against retailers and manufacturers, and laws passed in 2022 and 2025 restricting shipments into the city. Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced legislation in January that would require 3D printers sold in New York state to include blocking software and would impose harsher penalties for distributing digital gun-making instructions, though the same report notes only that the measure was introduced, not whether it has since advanced.
Guerrero's case also echoes a similar prosecution upstate, where Demetrio Daga was found guilty on 15 felony charges after using a 3D printer to manufacture more than 50 firearms, the Daily Gazette reported. Authorities recovered 22 AR-style ghost-gun assault rifles and more than 200 3D-printed lower handgun receivers and rifle frames from Daga's residences.
