Jacksonville, Florida – United States Lawyer Roger B. Handberg pronounces that Gregory Austin Eward (25, Stay Oak) at the moment pleaded responsible to conspiracy to own and switch unregistered firearm silencers. Eward faces a most penalty of 5 years in federal jail. A sentencing date has not but been set.
In response to the plea settlement, Eward and his father and co-defendant, Dustin Eward, operated Eward Analysis Inc., an organization that marketed and bought firearm silencers (also referred to as suppressors) over the web. In flippantly coded language, their web site, ewardresearch.com, marketed the sale of combos of elements designed and meant to be used in assembling firearm silencers – by no means utilizing the time period “silencer,” however referring to particular person parts as “toobz,” threaded “finish caps,” “spacers,” and “spools.” Gross sales might be accomplished with both money or cryptocurrency. The web site included images of the gadgets on the market, which have been identifiable as parts of firearms silencers.
In 2018, Dustin Eward was interviewed by two FBI Particular Brokers. He advised the brokers that he lived along with his son and that they operated a enterprise out of their house. In response to Dustin Eward, they produced and bought “solvent traps” and adaptors for firearms. It is not uncommon for sellers of illicit firearms silencers to falsely declare that their merchandise should not truly silencers, however as a substitute are “solvent traps,” that’s, units supposedly designed to catch or “lure” soiled cleansing solvent pushed via the barrel of a firearm from the chamber finish and out via the muzzle.
In January and once more in February 2022, an undercover ATF Particular Agent ordered three silencers from the Ewards, paying for them with cryptocurrency. Surveillance video from a publish workplace confirmed Gregory Eward mailing one of many parcels containing silencers that the agent ultimately acquired.
The units have been examined by an ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer and firearms knowledgeable who concluded that the units have been constant in design and development with firearms silencers that he had examined up to now and he acknowledged the units to be firearms silencers. The officer famous that to make the silencers purposeful, an end-user would wish to drill heart holes via the silencers’ baffles and finish cap; the officer estimated, nonetheless, that this job solely would require 5 to 10 minutes to finish. Notably, additionally included within the parcels that the Ewards had mailed have been 3D-printed instruments, together with a device designed to behave as a “jig” to precisely information the drilling of heart holes via the silencers. These silencers weren’t registered within the Nationwide Firearms Registration and Switch Report, as required by federal regulation.
On the time of his arrest, on Might 9, 2022, Gregory Eward had a Glock-type handgun on the again seat of the automobile. The pistol had no serial quantity and was loaded. Brokers additionally situated three rifle bump-stocks within the automobile’s open trunk. These units additionally had no serial numbers.
Throughout an interview after his arrest, Gregory Eward acknowledged that he was the CEO of Eward Analysis and that he and his father labored for the corporate. He volunteered that his merchandise seem like silencers, however he denied that he was promoting these merchandise as silencers or silencer kits. He later acknowledged that their merchandise have been much like silencers, and they’d function as silencers if a gap was drilled via them. Eward claimed that these merchandise have been meant to retailer small gadgets, reminiscent of fishing line, a syringe, or a towel.
On Might 10, 2022, FBI and ATF Particular Brokers executed a search warrant on the Ewards’ house. They situated roughly 105 firearms, over 12,000 rounds of ammunition, and 35 assembled firearms silencers. There was additionally a adequate amount of elements (together with metallic tubes, baffles, and threaded endcaps), which have been designed or redesigned, and meant to be used in assembling or fabricating greater than 300 extra firearm silencers.
Gregory Eward’s co-defendant, Dustin Eward, is scheduled to proceed to trial in June 2023. He’s charged by indictment with conspiracy to own and distribute unregistered silencers, possession of unregistered silencers, switch of unregistered silencers, and threatening to assault and homicide a federal regulation enforcement officer. An indictment is merely a proper cost {that a} defendant has dedicated a number of violations of federal felony regulation, and each defendant is presumed harmless until, and till, confirmed responsible.
“This end result displays the tireless efforts of investigators from a number of federal, state and native businesses,” mentioned ATF Tampa Discipline Division’s Appearing Particular Agent in Cost Richard Coes. “Northeast Florida is far safer at the moment, due to their teamwork.”
“Though regulation enforcement continues to battle violent crime, it stays a menace in too lots of our communities,” mentioned Sherri E. Onks, Particular Agent in Cost of the FBI Jacksonville Division. “The FBI and our native, state and federal regulation enforcement companions stay targeted on figuring out and investigating those that commit violent crime, together with those that visitors in unlawful firearms. Let this case be a warning that we are going to not relaxation whereas Individuals stay in worry of violence of their neighborhoods.”
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Naval Legal Investigative Service, the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Workplace, the Stay Oak Police Division, the Florida Division of Legislation Enforcement, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Workplace, and the Lake Metropolis Police Division. It’s being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kirwinn Mike, Michael J. Coolican, and Cherie Krigsman.
This case is a part of Undertaking Secure Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing collectively all ranges of regulation enforcement and the communities they serve to cut back violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everybody. On Might 26, 2021, the Division launched a violent crime discount technique strengthening PSN primarily based on these core rules: fostering belief and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that assist forestall violence from occurring within the first place, setting targeted and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the outcomes.
