In gun trafficking’s new frontier, man charged with manufacturing ghost guns in South Side apartment

On a Sunday morning in March, Devon Dow allegedly texted a potential customer a photo of some firearms he was selling, along with one word: “YO.”

The guns hadn’t been purchased from a retailer or sold at a gun show, according to federal prosecutors. They were so-called ghost guns, Glock-style, 9 mm semi-automatic firearms that Dow had assembled himself from weapons-grade polymer parts purchased on the internet.

Hours later, law enforcement was watching as Dow allegedly met the buyer, who was actually an undercover agent, outside the apartment Dow shared with his grandmother in the 1300 block of East 75th Street, according to prosecutors. He‘d hid the guns in a shoe box and carried them out in a shopping bag, which he placed in the trunk of the buyer’s car before disappearing back into the building.

The weapons sold for $3,000 that day were among seven ghost guns purchased by undercover agents from Dow over five transactions since January, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court last week.

Unlike traditionally manufactured firearms, none of the weapons sold by Dow had any serial numbers, and would have been virtually untraceable once they hit the street, according to federal prosecutors.

Dow, 22, was charged with one count of willfully dealing firearms without a license. At a detention hearing on Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Berry asked that he be held in custody as a danger to the community, saying a search of his apartment turned up additional guns, gun parts and ammunition clips.

Dow’s attorney, Daniel Hesler, noted that Dow has no prior criminal history. He said what was found in the apartment, while potentially troubling, was “certainly not the arsenal I’ve seen in other gun dealing cases.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Heather McShain said that while Dow’s alleged conduct was concerning given the level of gun violence in the city, his lack of criminal history outweighed the need to keep him locked up pending trial.

“It goes without saying that in the city of Chicago in 2022, with rampant gun violence, this is a serious offense,” McShain said. “But there is literally nothing here in his criminal record … this was a very, very close call.”

The judge ordered Dow released on home confinement to the custody of his mother and sister, who live in Lansing.

The case against Dow represents a new frontier in gun trafficking investigations. Ghost guns have increasingly drawn alarm among law enforcement and politicians on both the local and national stage, even though they still account for just a small percentage of all firearms confiscated by police each year.

Earlier this month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law making the selling or owning of ghost guns illegal in Illinois. That followed a move by President Joe Biden’s administration in April introducing a rule banning the manufacturing of ghost guns, including the kits people can buy online to build the firearm themselves.

Ghost guns are often made by hobbyists with a 3D printer or from kits that can be purchased online. People assembling ghost guns also are able to avoid background checks the state requires to obtain a firearm.

In Chicago and nationwide, the number of ghost guns used in crimes has drastically increased over the past several years. Chicago police Superintendent David Brown has said they are the “subset of guns seized that is growing the most” in the city.

Earlier this month, following the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Seandell Holliday near The Bean in Millennium Park, police said another youth pulled a gun from his waistband, then ran as officers moved in. He was quickly apprehended and the weapon was found to be a ghost gun.

In another recent case, Illinois State Police arrested suspects in connection to multiple carjackings and found that they had allegedly used a ghost gun in at least some of the heists. Also this month, a student at Oak Park River Forest High School was arrested and charged with bringing a loaded ghost gun to school.

“A child should not be able to build an AR-15 like they’re building a toy truck,” Pritzker said during a bill-signing ceremony on May 18 at The Ark of St. Sabina in Auburn Gresham. “A convicted domestic abuser should not be able to evade scrutiny by using a 3D printer to make a gun.”

Meanwhile, the investigation into Dow’s alleged trafficking of ghost guns began on Jan. 3 when a Chicago police informant tipped law enforcement to a man who “ordered firearm parts from the internet” and was assembling them for sale in the city’s Grand Crossing neighborhood, according to the complaint unsealed after Dow’s arrest last week.

On Jan. 14, the informant arranged a meeting between Dow and an undercover agent posing as a potential buyer, according to the complaint. Later that day, the agent purchased a 9 mm “ghost gun” from Dow in the parking lot next to Dow’s building, and during the transaction, Dow gave the agent his cellphone number for future orders, the complaint alleged.

Two weeks later, Dow texted the undercover agent a photo of another gun he’d assembled, saying, “This is the 23,” a reference to the Glock 23 model it replicated, the charges alleged.

“That (expletive) nice,” the agent responded, according to the complaint.

In a phone call arranging the sale, Dow told the undercover agent that “all of the firearms he sells are functional,” but if there were any problems with the gun he would fix them, the complaint alleged.

“I tell all my customers … you gotta make sure you call,” Dow said in the recorded phone call, according to the complaint. “I ain’t had nobody call me back but just in case, like you know what I’m saying, have any problems like call me ASAP.”

The two later met at the same location near Dow’s apartment, where the agent allegedly bought the gun for $900.

Two more transactions involving four ghost guns took place in March, including one on March 4 where Dow allegedly sold the undercover agent a .40-caliber “ghost gun” with an extended 22-round magazine for $1,000, according to the complaint.

In the last transaction on May 3, Dow allegedly was under surveillance and he hid a “ghost gun” in a laundry bin and walked to the parking lot outside his building, which houses a laundromat on the ground floor, according to the complaint.

The agent took the gun and placed $1,100 in cash into Dow’s laundry bin in exchange for the firearm, the complaint alleged.

In addition to the surveillance of Dow’s alleged gun sales, investigators obtained information from the U.S. Postal Service showing that from March 1 to April 6, Dow received approximately 14 parcels “containing suspected gun parts” from various manufacturers, according to the complaint.

At Friday’s detention hearing, Hesler said the materials found in Dow’s apartment suggested that his interest in gun building “seems to be that of a hobbyist” rather than anything tied to gangs or street violence.

“It’s not a very good hobby,” Hesler said, “(but) it’s not screaming that this has been going on forever.”

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com