Winter Garden Police Aid Gun Ring Bust

Seven men in a Central Florida gun trafficking case have now been sentenced in federal court, closing a prosecution that investigators say moved hundreds of illegal firearms through the Orlando area. (justice.gov) Senior U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton sentenced the group between August 2025 and April 21, 2026. Victor Manuel LaFontaine Ruiz of Poinciana got the longest term at 17 years and 4 months, while Jincheng Shi of St. Cloud was sentenced on April 21 to 7 years after a jury conviction. (justice.gov) Federal prosecutors said the ring operated from at least September 2023 and centered on a workspace at Jose Emanuel Maldonado Rodriguez’s property in Kissimmee. Investigators said LaFontaine and Maldonado assembled and modified semi-automatic and automatic firearms there with a “ghost gunner” machine and endmill drilling tools. (justice.gov) A “ghost gunner” is a computer-guided milling machine that can finish unfinished gun parts into working firearm components. Prosecutors said the group used that setup to produce and alter weapons, including machineguns, machinegun conversion devices and high-capacity magazines. (justice.gov) The buyers in the case were not ordinary retail customers. Prosecutors said the weapons and conversion devices were sold to convicted felons and immigrants in the country illegally, including three co-defendants who often brokered deals for other customers. (justice.gov) When agents executed five search warrants on February 20, 2025, they recovered five AR-style pistols with sequential serial numbers, at least three machinegun conversion devices, and machinery used to assemble and modify firearms. Prosecutors also said agents found fentanyl, drug paraphernalia and thousands of rounds of ammunition. (justice.gov) The case stretched across agencies, not just federal ones. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives led the investigation with help from the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation, Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Orlando Police Department, Winter Garden Police Department, Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, Apopka Police Department, Seminole County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Highway Patrol. (justice.gov) The sentencing marks the end of the criminal case against all seven defendants first charged in February 2025. Six pleaded guilty, and Shi was the only defendant convicted at trial. (justice.gov)