Dorchester man allegedly had material for ‘ghost guns’

25ghostguns - Boston police display parts of ghost guns, ammunition and 3-D printer allegedly discovered inside Dorchester apartment on Monday. (Boston Police)Boston Police

Police searching a Dorchester apartment as part of a drug investigation found hundreds of rounds of ammunition, drugs, a 3D printer, and other evidence of a “ghost gun”-making operation, law enforcement officials said.

Edmilson F. Andrade, 32, was arraigned in Dorchester Municipal Court on a charge of possession of ammunition without an FID card, as well as drug charges, filed after Boston police searched his apartment at 286 Columbia Road on Monday.

“They found drugs, but they also found a full-scale residential ghost gun mill,” said District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden during an afternoon briefing. “These composite guns were being made for one reason only: to be sold on the streets.”

Andrade pleaded not guilty to the ammunition charge. He also pleaded not guilty to a charge of illegal possession of fentanyl and trafficking fentanyl after police found a white powder during the search.

Andrade, who was ordered held on $10,000 cash bail, said during the arraignment that the powder was not a dangerous substance. “It’s actually fiber,” he told the judge. “I use it for the gym.”

Andrade was not facing any charges for the other material police found during their search because the evidence is still being processed, authorities said.

In addition to the 3D printer, police found 19 partially-assembled pistols, mostly the lower half of handguns, known as “lower pistol receivers.”

Police also found four plastic lower rifle receivers, as well as a number of other gun parts.

An illegal ghost gun is a fully operational gun that does not have the serial number or other identifying information law enforcement routinely uses in searching for those responsible for gun violence, authorities said.

“Let me be clear: this inventory is exactly the type of trafficking that can devastate our streets and lead to bloodshed and horrible tragedy,” Hayden said.

Just last week, Hayden said, Boston police seized 15 illegal firearms in the city, including a ghost gun recovered at Charlestown High School.

He said Boston FIRST, an anti-gun trafficking task force he announced earlier this month with Boston police and federal authorities, will try to identify ghost guns to their original source of purchase.

Hayden called Andrade’s alleged activity “a little jarring.”

“This is a situation where these guns are going to be trafficked. He’s not making these guns for his own personal use, not at that volume and that level,” he said.

James Borghesani, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, wrote in an e-mail that Andrade was not charged with any ghost gun-related charges because evidence is still being processed.

“We are still processing the evidence, particularly the state of assembly or near assembly of the parts, which will determine any future charges,” he wrote.

Police allegedly found 469 rounds of .22-caliber ammunition along with 79 more rounds of different calibers. Andrade stored the ammo in his child’s bedroom, his own, the kitchen, and the living room, a prosecutor said in court.

Travis Andersen of the Globe staff contributed to this report.