An alleged ghost gun maker accused of turning his East Village apartment into a small firearms factory was slapped with a 69-count indictment on weapons possession and other charges, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office announced Friday.
Cliffie Thompson, 35, was indicted following his Jan. 16 arrest, after police conducted a raid of his East Village apartment and discovered 3-D printers and other paraphernalia used to manufacture ghost guns. His arrest came one day after police nabbed him for assaulting his girlfriend, which sources say prompted the raid.
Thompson has been indicted on five counts of the criminal sale of a firearm, five counts of the criminal possession of a weapon, and a slew of other weapons-related charges. He is also facing fraud charges since he allegedly had 36 forged credit cards in his Manhattan apartment.
The indictment was handed down at a time when authorities have been stepping up their efforts to get ghost guns off the street. The guns are problematic since they lack serial numbers and are untraceable. They are typically put together with parts, and often 3-D printers are used.
“This indictment makes clear that ghost guns continue to proliferate in our city due to their accessibility and low cost,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “This alleged ghost gun factory posed a serious threat to public safety, and I thank our prosecutors and law enforcement partners for their excellent work in preventing any harm coming from these weapons.”
According to court documents, police raided his East Village apartment, a day after he was arrested for assault.
Cops discovered a “highly sophisticated setup,” Bragg said, that was used to manufacture gun parts from scratch. The search uncovered two 3-D printers with plastic filament in them, approximately 11 large spools of plastic filament used in 3-D printing, and 3-D printed gun parts in various stages of completion. There were also tools for…
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