Axel Fernando Galvez, 37, of Watts, L.A., is headed to federal prison for 46 months after admitting to building and selling untraceable assault rifles and silencers out of a South Los Angeles machine shop. The sentence, handed down today by U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder, marks the end of a years-long probe into a shadow gun operation targeting buyers overseas and domestic criminals.
Galvez pleaded guilty in December to two counts of unlicensed manufacturing and dealing in firearms. Court records show he deliberately split purchases of gun parts across multiple vendors to avoid detection, then assembled short-barreled AR-15-style rifles—weapons designed for rapid fire and concealment. He also admitted to manufacturing five silencers, which law enforcement says enhance the lethality and stealth of illegal firearms.
On August 28, 2017, Galvez sold five of the homemade rifles through an intermediary to an undercover agent with the United States Postal Inspection Service. He believed the buyer was a convicted felon planning to traffic the weapons to Egypt and the Philippines. During follow-up conversations, Galvez offered to sell 100 more rifles at a bulk discount, revealing a clear intent to scale his black-market operation.
In addition to prison, Galvez will serve three years of supervised release, during which he can be searched at any time by law enforcement. Judge Snyder also hit him with a $12,500 fine—money authorities say he earned from illicit gun sales. The combination of prison, financial penalty, and ongoing surveillance underscores the federal crackdown on ghost gun manufacturing.
A second suspect, Marcos Ernesto Chavarria, 31, of Inglewood, was tied to the same investigation. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and is set for sentencing on April 2 by the same judge. While not charged in the firearms scheme, Chavarria’s connection highlights the overlap between drug networks and illegal arms trafficking in Southern California.
The probe was a joint effort between the Postal Inspection Service, the Los Angeles Police Department Parcel Task Force, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Los Angeles Joint Regional Intelligence Center. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Brown of the Major Frauds Section prosecuted the case, calling it a critical strike against unregulated weapon production in urban hotspots.
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Key Facts
- State: California
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Weapons
- Source: Official Source ↗
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