Queens airplane mechanic busted with cache of ghost gun kits and silencer parts

A Queens airplane mechanic has been busted for collecting an arsenal of untraceable high-powered ghost gun kits, including assault rifles, semiautomatic pistols and silencers, in a cache that he kept the backyard of his parents’ Glendale home.

Grzegorz Blachowicz, 36, was charged in a 131-count complaint for possessing one fully assembled assault rifle and about 19 kits to build polymer-based, unserialized firearms.

Police with the ghost gun task force also found thousands of rounds of ammunition of varying caliber, two bullet-resistant vests, a Taser and more than 207 large-capacity ammunition-feeding devices capable of holding more than 10 rounds, according to the Queens District Attorney.

Blachowicz also had the components to build other automatic pistols, dozens of silencers and a device that can turn a Glock semi-automatic pistol into a fully automatic weapon, prosecutors say.

Ghost gun trafficking is a developing cottage industry that threatens to make an already pervasive gun violence problem even worse,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.

Blachowicz, who authorities say does not have a gun permit in New York state, admitted to police that he travels to Pennsylvania regularly to visit relatives and to pick up packages of gun kits and gun components that he has sent to a post office box, according to the complaint.

He also confessed to using a gun broker website to chat privately about ghost gun kit purchases.

Blachowicz, however, said that there’s nothing nefarious about his weapons cache.

He told police that he is “just a collector,” according to the complaint. He told cops that he “never fired any of them” and that his collection is “just a hobby,” but he has the components to build “multiple assault rifles.”

His defense lawyer Todd Greenberg said that his client had no intention of hurting anyone.

“Our defense is that he was a collector,” he said. “He had no criminal intent to use them against anyone. The guns were in their original packaging.”

Greenberg called his client a “hardworking guy” who is an airplane mechanic at a local airport and lives with his parents.

There’s some indication that prosecutors are currently unable to prove what he intended to do with the guns.

Despite all the high-powered weaponry and ammunition, prosecutors hit Blachowicz with low-level felony and misdemeanor weapons possession charges.

“I look forward to resolving the case somewhat favorably for this young man,” Greenberg said.