Man arrested by Toronto police in 'ghost gun' investigation | Hanomansing Tonight

Ajouté : 2026-04-30

[00:00:00]Toronto police are announcing the seizure of a number of so-called ghost guns after finding one do-it-yourself gun maker who was advertising or found to be advertising his product online.

[00:00:12]>> One of the challenges is you can't trace these through traditional means like you would through um firearms bought in a store, smuggled across the border. Uh this has been a relatively new issue that we've started to see.

[00:00:27]Ghost guns are weapons that are made on consumer grade 3D printers, making them essentially, as you just heard, untraceable, while having the same capabilities, though, as traditional handguns. Authorities say they've recovered 10 such weapons since last November, and a 28-year-old man now faces multiple charges linked to manufacturing and trafficking. So far, police say that they believe he was working alone, but they're still looking into potential connections to other groups.

[00:00:57]Okay, our next guest has decades of experience in tackling the illicit use and trafficking of firearms. Frank Gross Beach is a firearms evidence management technical adviser for the UN and has also worked as an RCMP sergeant for nearly two decades. Joins me now. Frank, it's great to have you on this.

[00:01:15]>> Good evening and thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

[00:01:19]>> So, what do you make of the way the Toronto police handled this case? You had a chance to to look at the press release today. The arrest was made back in December and a court appearance happened in February. We're hearing about it now. Your reaction to it?

[00:01:32]Um, it's of course uh because it's Canadian involved uh it sits me back in my seat a little bit, but the moving parts worked because as per the media release and subsequent articles, we saw that information was noted by the RCMP. They got in touch with Toronto and then Toronto acted on that in uh Toronto Police Service acted on that information.

[00:02:06]Subsequently ran their project and determined that the individual was he trafficked a handgun and that the handgun had been 3D fabricated. They had responded to another complaint regarding shots fired.

[00:02:27]They had recovered uh spent cartridges.

[00:02:31]um the spent casings, cartridges, and did the forensics, the ballistics match, and then subsequently with the execution of the search warrant on the home of the accused, did match the casings, ballistically match the tool marks to some of the firearms that were recovered. And they seized the electronic data information.

[00:03:03]Uh they go into the background of that.

[00:03:05]They sees the printer. They looking at the programming. They all the work that they did is exactly the way it's supposed to work. I always refer to it and for when I teach around the globe is follow the signal. And that is exactly what they've done. It's interesting to hear you go through the steps that they they did so methodically. And I'm guessing the reason that would be necessary in terms of trying to to trace one of these weapons is because they are so, you know, we hear untraceable because it's made on a a 3D printer. And and when they did execute that search where and having read that uh press release, they they found, you know, the multiple pieces that were perhaps being sold, it sounded to me like, you know, separately uh so could be purchased and then assembled, you know, maybe to the point of being even less traceable. Am I right?

[00:03:57]>> Well, that's exactly it. That's why that the term that's come out uh and used quite commonly is the ghost gun because they don't bear uh make model serial number which is what is traced uh importer stamp if the firearms have been properly industry manufactured firearm imported into Canada or the United States. So the tracing that is done, it has to be ballistically.

[00:04:27]And to do that, not only do you need recover casings, but you also have to have the firearm to do the testing to match that up.

[00:04:38]>> Yeah. No, it definitely certainly sounds like a challenge both from what I was reading and and from the way you're you're putting this. Um, an interesting thing here in this press release, I think, is that the suspect's facing a a charge. It's a new offense under Canadian law. Uh, possession of computer data for the purpose of manufacturing and trafficking firearms. So, if you have a 3D printer, if you're familiar with this, you know that you have to get the data in order to put it in the 3D printer and then it it and I and I So, now just even being in possession of that that data is an offense. What do you make of that and what are your thoughts on that charge? It's the possession of the data for the purpose of manufacturing or trafficking. So the question that comes up and it'll be eventually we figure this will be come up in court is if a person has the data but they're not manufacturing for the purpose of trafficking. Uh so yeah, it there's a little bit of a a spot there, but it does come down to in this instance, he was the accused was downloading the information for the purpose of manufacturing and trafficking, which is it's a double hit.

[00:05:57]And we have to remember the in Canada we've not only dealt with uh 3D printed firearms but I got brought into the world because of CNC the metal milling side of that and that's also addressed in section 102.1 brackets one of the criminal code of the new offense. So, everybody's so locked in on the 3D printing, but we also have to remember there's also CNC metal milling going on.

[00:06:27]And because depending on where gangsters are and the cash they have here in the West Coast, our gangsters are rich, they're willing to pay that extra for those guns. But then polymer 80 came out. Then uh we had COVID and it changed the dynamics with regard to the self-fabrication world and it's ever evolving because we're now seeing the metal milling machines get cheaper uh with where there already some on the market but they're even going to get more available and that also is going to be a concern for law enforcement.

[00:07:04]>> Yeah. Well, I mean an important discussion and to the point of getting cheaper. I mean 3D printers are now you know there now everywhere as well and so a conversation thank you very much for having it with us an important one to have that's Frank Grow speech appreciate it >> thank you have a wonderful evening