Vern Evans
Two geniuses were arrested on weapons charges after their own Instagram post led the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department to raid a home on the near east side of the city.
According to detectives with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, the investigation began when they saw Instagram posts by Ronald Castellanos with pictures and prices of the weapons.
“You know Instagram is not the place to sell firearms,” said Drew Brown, an officer with the IMPD.
The SWAT raid, which took place on October 9, saw police seize eight handguns, 20 grams of methamphetamine as well as $3,480 in cash. Two of the seized handguns were Glocks equipped with machine gun conversion devices commonly known as switches.
IMPD officials state that this bust at a home on North State Avenue demonstrates the department’s ongoing concerted effort to crack down on criminals using and selling machine gun conversion devices across Indianapolis.
“This just goes to show the hard work our detectives are putting in day in and day out…They are getting these dangerous machine gun devices off the streets which can inflict a terrible amount of damage…Possession of a machine gun conversion device is a serious felony in and of itself, let alone allegedly selling those on a social media platform” Brown said.
While private firearm sales are legal in Indiana even if social media is used to facilitate, persons prohibited from possessing the weapons are still barred from such transactions, and selling machine gun conversion devices is always against the law.
“It should be noted that the firearms recovered from the home matched the pictures on the Instagram that were listed for sale…The two firearms with switches, one gold and one silver, were posted on Instagram for sale and were recovered,” court documents read.
Castellanos was on probation at the time of his arrest, having pleaded guilty in July to randomly discharging a gun at Brookside Park. In that case, he was charged with criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, a Level 6 felony, before he eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to the lesser misdemeanor version of that same crime.
Also arrested this week on weapons charges following the SWAT raid was Brenijah Hollis. An affidavit in the case shows that police also recovered a small amount of methamphetamine in addition to the firearms and switches during the raid. Officials claim Castellanos was using Instagram to sell both the drugs and the weapons.
Both suspects were arrested on preliminary charges of possession of a machine gun.
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