A federal jury in Sacramento has convicted Ruby Celly Uribe, 37, a former member of the California National Guard, of unlawfully possessing a machine gun and an unregistered short-barreled rifle. Prosecutors told jurors that the firearms case pulled back the curtain on broader allegations, including claims that Uribe trafficked untraceable “ghost guns” to colleagues and warned a known drug dealer about planned raids while assigned to a counterdrug task force. The verdict has sharpened concerns about illegal weapons moving through informal networks and the abuse of sensitive operational access.
In a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, investigators said they recovered from Uribe’s home a short-barreled rifle that had been modified to fire in full-automatic mode and that lacked a serial number, characteristics prosecutors say make it a ghost gun. The release adds that cellphone data recovered in the probe showed Uribe trafficked non-serialized, short-barreled machine guns, including a transaction to a coworker on July 20, 2022.
Cellphone text messages recovered during the investigation showed Uribe sharing the time and location of possible drug raids and how many units would respond, as jurors heard during the trial. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, prosecutors also presented images and messages showing she offered illegal firearms for sale in mid-2022 and that another firearm she offered on Aug. 11, 2022, was purchased and later recovered…