Firearms dealer from controversial Littleton gun shop cluster facing federal charges
LITTLETON – A man who operates his business as part of a controversial gun shop cluster inside an old mill building in Littleton is facing federal charges.
Prosecutors said Cory Daigle allegedly sold guns to a straw buyer who later gave them to an unlicensed man and police said the guns were later seized after a shooting in Hyde Park.
Daigle, 28, runs Steelworks Defense Solutions at the so-called Mill building on Great Road in Littleton. The cluster has become the largest collection of federally licensed gun dealers in the nation, which has led to opposition from some Littleton residents.
When WBZ-TV covered a Board of Selectmen meeting about the cluster in September, then-Attorney General Maura Healey had not filed any charges against the gun dealers, and Littleton Police Chief Matthew Pinard said he did not see anything illegal or dangerous about them.
"We do have 80 gun dealers in one building. This is the perfect storm, I guess you could say," Littleton Police Chief Matthew Pinard told WBZ-TV Thursday.
He says the department does their best to inspect each and every business, patrolling and vetting licenses within the mill. "We are in there in a regular basis. A lot of our patrols stop and walk through the mills," Pinard said.
State Senator Jamie Eldridge visited the gun mill in his district and told WBZ-TV that he has concerns with how business is done there. He's filing a bill to make it harder for business owners to sell guns and parts of guns.
"To ban ghost guns, which are guns that are similar to banned guns, but just different enough that dealers think they can sell them," Sen. Eldridge said. "As well as banning the sale of parts of guns that are already banned in Massachusetts. We need to close these loopholes and I am concerned these loopholes are happening at the Littleton gun mill."
According to a criminal complaint, Daigle is accused of providing guns to buyer Shakim Grant, even though the weapons were allegedly paid for and intended for 20-year-old Gustavo Rodriguez, who is not licensed to possess firearms.
The sale took place on October 27, prosecutors said. On November 6, Boston Police investigated a shooting in Hyde Park. One person was found with gunshot wounds at the scene. Two other people were also shot and taken to an area hospital, including Rodriguez.
Officers found several guns and ammunition during a search of a Hyde Park home belonging to one of Rodriguez's family members.
During a search of Daigle's home, prosecutors said they seized 95 firearms. Among them was an unregistered machine gun that he had built, prosecutors said.
Daigle is charged with conspiracy and possession or transfer of a machine gun.