A former Camp Pendleton Marine who sold nearly two dozen unserialized “ghost guns” to undercover officers was sentenced Monday to just over three years in federal prison.
Christian Ferrari, 23, pleaded guilty to selling 22 rifles to officers with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives on four separate occasions last year.
Federal authorities first learned of the gun sales in January of 2023, when Riverside County sheriff’s officials notified ATF that Ferrari was involved in manufacturing and selling guns and would be expecting a call from someone interested in buying firearms, according to a prosecutor’s sentencing memorandum.
Between March and May of last year, prosecutors say Ferrari met with undercover agents in San Diego and El Cajon and sold the rifles for a total of nearly $24,000. During two of the transactions, officers mentioned that the guns they bought would be bound for Mexico.
At his sentencing hearing in federal court, Ferrari told U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant that his involvement in the gun sales was “really stupid.”