New Haven Man, 29, Pleads Guilty To Machine Gun Charge: Feds

NEW HAVEN, CT —A 29-year-old New Haven man pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to a charge of possession and transfer of machine guns, according to the Connecticut Acting U.S. Attorney.

Angel Reyes-Rodriquez faces up to 10 years in prison when he's sentenced in late November, prosecutors said.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on May 3, 2019, Reyes-Rodriguez communicated with a person over Instagram about a photo of a Glock pistol that he'd had posted. Reyes-Rodriguez asked the person if he had a Glock, and said that he had a friend with a 'chip' to make the gun shoot automatically, prosecutors said. Then, "at the direction of law enforcement," that person set up a meeting to buy two "Glock conversion devices" from Reyes-Rodriguez, federal authorities said. Some two weeks later, on May 9, 2019, Reyes-Rodriguez met the person at a New Haven store parking lot and sold the weapons for $500.

Under federal law, a "conversion device that changes a gun into an automatic weapon is considered a machine gun," federal prosecutors said.

Out on a $100,000 bond pending sentencing, this is Reyes-Rodriguez's second federal conviction, according to federal prosecutors. In 2016, he was sentenced to probation for delivering a package containing two kilograms of cocaine to a co-conspirator, authorities said

The case, investigated by the ATF, is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, the "centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts," prosecutors said.