North Hollywood Man Admits To Dealing Ghost Guns

LOS ANGELES, CA — A North Hollywood man has admitted to acting as an unlicensed gun broker, selling weapons and ghost guns without serial numbers along with high capacity magazines, according to the Department of Justice

Arthur Muradyan, 32, will plead guilty to a federal charge of engaging in the business of dealing in firearms without a license and to distributing methamphetamine as part of the plea deal. According to federal prosecutors, Muradyan sold nearly a pound of the drug to an undercover operative.

Muradyan “willfully offered to, and did, sell firearms, firearms accessories, and ammunition, including: machine guns; semiautomatic firearms with large capacity magazines; firearms bearing no legitimate manufacturer’s mark or serial number; and unregistered and unserialized short-barreled rifles,” he admitted in the plea agreement.

Many of the guns had been trafficked from Las Vegas, prosecutors contend. The firearm sales were made to an informant working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the summer of 2021

Muradyan sold 423.7 grams of methamphetamine to the informant on September 8, 2021, the same day he also sold a semi-automatic 9mm handgun and a machinegun conversion device commonly called a “Glock switch," prosecutors allege.

After the last gun sale on September 29, in which Muradyan sold a short-barreled AR-15-type rifle with no serial number that also had a 3D printed machinegun conversion device attached to it, another AR-15-type rifle with an obliterated serial number, a semi-automatic 9mm handgun, and another 9mm pistol with no serial number, agents search his home and recovered 23 firearms, assorted magazines and ammunition of various calibers, and firearms component parts and accessories, prosecutors allege. According to the justice department, Muradyan illegally possessed those seized firearms and ammunition because he previously had been convicted of felony burglary offenses in two cases.

Once he pleads guilty, Muradyan will face a mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison for the narcotics distribution offense, and up to five years for the firearms-related offense, prosecutors noted.

City News Service contributed to this report.