{"id":114649,"date":"2026-01-17T12:14:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=114649"},"modified":"2026-01-17T12:14:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:14:55","slug":"114649","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=114649","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

DeStefano flown to New York City, prepping for court hearings<\/a><\/p>\n

by\u00a0Lee Williams<\/a><\/p>\n

Indie Guns<\/a>\u00a0owner Lawrence Michael DeStefano was picked up from Florida\u2019s Orange County Jail by New York detectives this week after serving nearly 90 days in custody and flown to New York City aboard a private jet.<\/p>\n

When they landed, the officers took a group photo and then rushed DeStefano to an NYPD precinct to be booked, and then to a quick court hearing in Queens. Afterward, he was taken to Rikers Island, a notorious 413-acre state prison located in the East River near the Bronx, where he remains incarcerated.<\/p>\n

At the court hearing, a New York State prosecutor tried to portray him as an \u201cevil gun runner,\u201d DeStefano said, but the judge cut her off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judge looked at her and said, \u2018I have a 65-year-old man with no criminal record and you\u2019re saying all these bad things about him.\u2019 Then he turned to me and said, \u2018You\u2019ve got some real serious charges against you. If you\u2019ve got somewhere to stay, I will let you out on bail,\u2019\u201d DeStefano said over a jail phone Friday morning. \u201cThis is going to be a fight and the gloves are off. I am going balls-to-the-wall on this. It\u2019s going to get ugly.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeStefano\u2019s court-appointed defense attorney was of little help. She showed up just seconds before the hearing began.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had no idea what was going on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He will appear in court for a bail hearing in two weeks, DeStefano said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to figure out how to get a message to the gun community,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I am out on bail, I could win this. I know what I need to do to win this. I need to do research, but they\u2019re seizing it for evidence. They already deleted my Telegram account after they got my password,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Throughout the trip, the detectives were talking furiously with the New York State Attorney General\u2019s Office about whether to issue a press release, DeStefano said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was chaos. Everyone was on their phones. They decided to issue a press release,\u201d he said. \u201cYou guys really think you\u2019re doing a press release? You\u2019re helping me. The gun culture is a tight-knit family.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York State Attorney General Letitia James issued a massive press release late Wednesday, titled,\u00a0\u201cAttorney General James and NYPD Commissioner Tisch Announce Indictment of Florida Man for Illegally Shipping Firearms and Ghost Guns to New York.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

It contains a link to\u00a0a 42-page indictment<\/a>\u00a0that charges DeStefano with 71 felonies, which could see him jailed for a total of 521 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawrence Destefano and his company Indie Guns are accused of flooding New York with illegal firearms, and we are determined to bring him to justice,\u201d James said in the press release. \u201cI will not tolerate illegal and dangerous weapons in our communities, and I thank our partners in law enforcement for their work to shut down this ghost gun supplier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the allegation and the centuries behind bars DeStefano faces, the press release indicates that only a dozen actual firearms were recovered, along with \u201ctwo ghost gun kits, 28 high-capacity magazines, and over 1,400 rounds of ammunition, which were mailed to locations in Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau County.\u201d<\/p>\n

The press release also mentions the default judgement James won in a civil suit against DeStefano, which he ignored.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn March 2024, Attorney General James\u00a0secured a $7.8 million judgment and court order<\/a>\u00a0against Indie Guns prohibiting it from selling firearms in New York,\u201d the press release states.<\/p>\n

The lengthy press release<\/a>\u00a0even includes quotes from NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch, HSI New York Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel and USPIS Inspector in Charge Ketty Larco-Ward of the New York Division. All strongly supported James for \u201cdisrupting the dangerous illicit weapons pipeline,\u201d and for \u201cdismantling gun trafficking networks.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeStefano knows he will be severely outgunned in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am ready for the fight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DeStefano flown to New York City, prepping for court hearings by\u00a0Lee Williams Indie Guns\u00a0owner Lawrence Michael DeStefano was picked up from Florida\u2019s Orange County Jail by New York detectives this week after serving nearly 90 days in custody and flown to New York City aboard a private jet. When they landed, the officers took a … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,23,50,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-courts","category-goobermint","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114650,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114649\/revisions\/114650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}