Three Montco men worked together to traffic homemade ‘ghost guns’ and silencers, DA says

A Hatfield man operated a gun-manufacturing workshop out of his home, prosecutors said Wednesday, assembling unregistered “ghost guns” and silencers that he then solicited for sale.

Tony Phan Ho, 32, has been charged with operating a corrupt organization, conspiracy and more than two dozen firearms-law violations. Two of his friends, Ritha “Kay” Ngoy, 36, also of Hatfield; and Michael Phan Nguyen, 32, of Lansdale, face similar charges for helping Ho in what investigators described as a sophisticated gun-trafficking operation.

Although detectives found evidence that Ho had sold 15 homemade firearms, he had the capability to make significantly more, according to Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele.

“The true extent of his firearms manufacturing business — as well as the extent of the criminal activities those firearms were then used in — may never be known, especially since privately made firearms have no serial numbers,” Steele said. “These ghost guns are a great danger to the safety of our communities.”

» READ MORE: Three people charged with gun trafficking as Montco prosecutors work to crack down on straw purchases

Ngoy hid 15 of Ho’s guns in June when federal investigators arranged to interview him, according to the affidavit of probable cause filed in his arrest. Nguyen asked Ho to build ghost guns for him, and also attempted straw purchase of firearms from gun stores on Ho’s behalf. Ho is unable to legally buy guns due to a previous conviction for burglary.

Ho’s lawyer, Richard Blasetti, declined to comment. Nguyen’s lawyer, Paul Mallis, did not immediately return a request for comment. There was no indication Ngoy had hired a lawyer.

Federal investigators began tracking Ho in May, when they were notified of a shipment of silencer components sent to his home in Hatfield from China, the affidavit said. Montgomery County detectives working with their federal counterparts intercepted the package and arranged to interview Ho.

» READ MORE: Ghost guns proliferate as Philadelphia grapples with gun violence

Initially, Ho told the investigators that a friend ordered the silencers accidentally, admitting that he knows he can’t own a firearm legally, the affidavit said. However, after continued questioning, Ho changed his story, saying that he bought the components himself.

He then told the detectives that he sometimes builds the upper components of firearms for his friends and family as a way to make money, but denied assembling fully functional ghost guns, the affidavit said.

A subsequent search of Ho’s home and shed revealed tools and machines required to create ghost guns from kits ordered online, as well as AR-15 rifle parts, polymer pistol kits, ammunition, and other gun accessories.

After the search, Ngoy turned over 15 guns that he said Ho had asked him to hold on to after detectives made their appointment to meet with him. All but one were fully functional ghost guns, the affidavit said.

Detectives later searched Ho’s cellphone, which, they wrote in the affidavit, contained pictures of even more fully assembled ghost guns, the affidavit said.

Web search records showed Ho purchased more than 200 “firearms related products and body armor” through eBay between August 2020 and July, the affidavit said. These purchases included pistol slides, barrels and triggers, as well as AR-15 components, ammunition, and silencer components.

» READ MORE: The Kingsessing mass shooting suspect used ghost guns, police say. Philly is suing two manufacturers.

The phone also contained hundreds of text messages with Nguyen, Ngoy, and others, in which Ho discussed building guns for potential clients, according to investigators. In one of those messages, Ho bragged about having customers from Philadelphia coming “all the way” to his home in the suburbs to buy guns from him, the affidavit said.

Investigators also found multiple videos of Ho firing a silenced rifle through his back door, toward a target in his backyard. Law enforcement sources said none of Ho’s neighbors on his residential street ever reported hearing gunfire.

All three were being held on $75,000 bail, and they did not post the 10% required for release.