NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A federal prisoner was indicted on Tuesday for advertising and selling illegal firearms and gun parts online to an undercover NYPD officer, according to prosecutors.
Hayden Espinosa, 24, from Texas, allegedly sold and advertised illegal firearms and gun parts through the Telegram channel "3D Amendment," which promoted racially and ethnically motivated extremist views. He allegedly ran the channel using cell phones smuggled into the prison.
"We are being vigilant in all spaces and things that are happening in chat rooms today can be on our streets tomorrow," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said during a press conference.
Espinosa, who had been released from his federal prison term in Louisiana on June 4, was immediately arrested by the Grant Parish Sheriff's Office on the New York State Supreme Court indictment.
According to court documents, in May 2022, the NYPD's REME Unit found that Espinosa was allegedly operating the Telegram channel "3D Amendment" with the username "Treason 3DA."
He and other members of the channel allegedly would advertise the sale of illegal firearms and gun parts, including silencers, high-capacity magazines, Glock-style handguns and auto sears, according to court documents.
According to prosecutors, the members of the channel were motivated by Neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideologies and accelerationism, "a belief that violence, including through obtaining firearms and weapons, is necessary to achieve a total collapse of the status quo and to create a new extreme-right sociopolitical reality."
Group chat with Espinosa and photo of an individual with swastika armband.Manhattan District Attorney
In addition to selling illegal firearms and components, he allegedly also posted content on Telegram and his YouTube channel, which promoted white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and anti-government extremist ideologies.
Several people purchased firearms and parts from Espinosa and posted about the purchases in his channel.
In December 2022, Espinsoa was sentenced to prison at the Federal Correctional Complex Pollock in Louisiana in a separate federal criminal case. While serving his sentence, he allegedly sold illegal firearms and parts through his channel by using contraband cell phones. On at least three separate dates, he allegedly sold and attempted to sell items to an undercover NYPD officer through his channel.
Manhattan District Attorney
On Aug. 7, 2023, he allegedly sold two auto sears, one for a Glock-style handgun and one, which was 3D-printed, for an AR-style rifle to an undercover police officer. Within the same month, he also tried to give a Glock-19 handgun to the officer, according to court documents.
Then on Nov. 13, 2023, he sold two firearms silencers to the officer, according to court documents.
"While incarcerated, Hayden Espinosa allegedly sold guns and gun parts by using contraband electronic devices," said Bragg. "Furthermore, we allege Espinosa operated a Telegram channel that is a hub of ethnically and racially motivated extremist ideology. The combination of extremism and firearms is incredibly dangerous and threatens the safety of so many New Yorkers."
Espinosa is charged with four counts of transport of a firearm, machine gun, silencer, disguised gun and one count of attempted criminal sale of a firearm in the third degree.
He is expected to be arraigned on June 24.
The Manhattan DA has been attempting to crack down on the proliferation of illegal firearms and ghost guns. Last year, Bragg proposed legislation to make it a felony to manufacture ghost guns and a misdemeanor to share, sell or distribute files containing blueprints for 3D-printed firearms components.
YouTube recently updated its policies to prevent underage users from accessing dangerous firearm content. The platform will ban videos showing how to remove firearm safety devices. Additionally, videos about homemade guns, automatic weapons, and accessories like silencers will be restricted to users 18 and older. The changes will take effect June 18.
