A veteran NYPD detective was busted this week for manufacturing ghost guns and stashing a small army of unregistered weapons in his Staten Island home, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Det. Anthony Sciortino, 35, a 13-year veteran now assigned to the department’s 120th precinct, was arrested Tuesday and charged on a 16-count indictment, with charges dating back to 2020, according to the Public Richmond County Department.
During a raid on Sciortino’s home in Prince’s Bay, officers found 19 illegal firearms, including a machine gun and an assault weapon, prosecutors said.
Four of the guns were untraceable ghost guns with no serial numbers on the lower receivers, the district attorney’s office said.
Sciortino also allegedly failed to report the make, model, caliber and serial number of the other 15 guns to the NYPD within 10 days of receiving them — which is required by law, officials said.
“By deliberately failing to report these firearms to the NYPD, these illegal and dangerous weapons could have caused untold amounts of harm to our fellow Staten Islanders,” District Attorney Michael E. McMahon said in a statement.
“As Mr. Sciortino well knows, ghost guns are illegal, incredibly difficult for law enforcement to detect when used in the commission of a crime, and have no place on Staten Island.”
Sciortino also allegedly “used his position as an NYPD detective to access personnel files for unauthorized, unofficial and nefarious purposes,” the district attorney charged.
Sciortino faces rape charges, including the manufacture of weapons and dangerous instruments and devices; failure to report the sale or registration of a firearm; falsifying corporate documents; and computer trespass, according to the complaint.
Prosecutors requested that he be held at his arraignment Wednesday on $50,000 cash or $150,000 bond, but Judge John McPadden granted him supervised release instead.
Sciortino joined the NYPD in July 2011 and rose to the rank of detective in December 2017, department records show.
He was suspended without pay after his arrest, an NYPD spokesperson said. Records show he is due back in court on January 16.
“Although all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, Mr. Sciortino is alleged to have fraudulently amassed a small army of unregistered weapons, in addition to personally manufacturing multiple unlicensed, unregistered and untraceable ghost weapons and assault weapons,” McMahon said.
“Simply put, this brazen act of misconduct undermines the noble mission of law enforcement, weakens public confidence in the criminal justice system, and makes those we are sworn to protect and serve less safe.”
