A man who federal authorities said was ensnared in last weekend’s immigration arrests in Chicago was ordered detained Wednesday when he appeared before a judge for allegedly selling a “ghost gun” to an undercover agent.
Danny Linares is charged with selling a handgun equipped with a switch to make it fire automatically.
A report for the federal court found Linares would likely be of low risk for fleeing or committing another crime if he was released, but federal prosecutors argued Wednesday morning that his release would put the community in danger.
U.S. District Judge Gabriel Fuentes agreed with prosecutors, saying it was “highly, highly dangerous to be selling machine guns on the streets of Chicago,” given the city’s struggles with gun violence.
The gun appears to have been seized by Chicago Police after it was purchased from Linares by an undercover agent for $1,350. The deal was secretly recorded, with court records showing the gun was inventoried and photographed by the police department.
In video of the sale shown in court, the undercover agent can be heard discussing the sale in Spanish with a man prosecutors said was Linares.
Prosecutors said Linares also sold the undercover agent a second switch to convert another gun to automatically fire and said he could get more weapons, including “rifles.”
In the video, prosecutors said a third man they described as brokering the sale appeared briefly on a cellphone screen during a video chat.
It was not immediately clear when Linares was taken into custody. Court records show an indictment was filed on Sunday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement claimed almost 1,000 arrests nationwide on Sunday but have released little information who was detained.
Through interviews and federal court filings, the Sun-Times had identified five people detained, including two men who were only accused of entering the county illegally.
Prosecutors said Linares had been living locally for about two years, has a child who lived in Minnesota and most of his family living in Venezuela.
Linares had been working as an Uber driver and had no known criminal background outside of the pending charge, prosecutors said. Linares was not in the country illegally and had “temporary protected status,” which was up for review in March, prosecutors said.
The status can be applied for by “nationals of certain countries experiencing problems that make it difficult or unsafe” for them to return to their home countries, according to the American Immigration Council.
This week, the Trump administration revoked an extension of deportation protections for Venezuelans, which could open them up to deportation in coming months.
Linares appears to have been on authorities’ radar for some time before he was taken into custody.
Prosecutors said U.S. Customs and Border Patrol previously seized a package in Miami that was destined for Linares’ Austin neighborhood home.
The package, which had been shipped from Peru, contained several sweaters that appeared to have been soaked in a solution described as “gritty” and leaving white residue that tested positive for ketamine.
Border patrol officials shipped the package to Chicago police. Linares allegedly had told an undercover agent he could sell him “pink cocaine,” which prosecutors said is a drug cocktail that can include ketamine.
Linares had not been charged with any drug offenses as of Wednesday.