A Massachusetts man has been charged in a Rhode Island court after allegedly faking residency in the Ocean State to purchase assault-style weapons in an attempt to circumvent his home state’s law banning such guns.
Joshua Rosa-Reyes, 29, was arraigned in Rhode Island’s Second Division District Court in Newport on Dec. 13, charged with eight counts of providing false information in securing a firearm and one count of providing false statement to fraudulently obtain license or registration.
Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office alleges that Rosa-Reyes, a resident of Fall River, provided a false address in Pawtucket to obtain a Rhode Island driver’s license and further “provided his false address on state and federal firearms applications at two licensed firearms dealers in Rhode Island to purchase eight assault-style weapons between May and August 2023.”
In August, state and federal investigators executed a search warrant at two storage units in Massachusetts belonging to Rosa-Reyes, where they seized “a Glock-style ghost gun, a AK-47 assault weapon, a .357 Magnum revolver, ammunition, over one hundred large capacity feeding devices, and various other gun parts including three lower receivers (considered firearms under federal law), and $10,000 cash.”
“We recruited and built our BCI investigative team for just this purpose: to combat illegal trafficking of firearms using our unique regulatory authority over firearms dealers and long-developed expertise in this area,” said Neronha in a statement. “I thank the investigators from this Office’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation Unit and our federal and Massachusetts law enforcement partners for their exceptional work in this important case, and the licensed firearms dealers for their cooperation.”
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