A Dorchester man was arrested Wednesday on charges of selling firearms without a license and possession of a machine gun for the 13 guns he allegedly sold over two months to a buyer who was working undercover for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Joshua Morency, 28, was ordered held at least until a detention hearing on Monday in US District Court.
According to an affidavit by an ATF agent on the case, ATF and State Police decided to start investigating Morency in August after learning he might be selling unlicensed guns in the Boston area.
They got a guy seeking a good word on his own pending legal problems to try to buy guns from him, using ATF marked cash and a car outfitted with cameras and microphones, and the guy came through, arranging five buys between August and October, mainly in the parking lot of one of Dorchester’s Stop & Shops, but one at a gas station, for example:
“On September 24, 2025, the ATF Bridgewater Field Office conducted an audio/video-controlled purchase of five firearms, including four machineguns affixed with MCDs, from MORENCY at a Shell gas station parking lot in Dorchester, Massachusetts utilizing CI-1. … During this audio/video recorded controlled purchase, CI-1 provided MORENCY a total of $5,600 in government funds for a PMF, 9mm, machinegun, bearing no serial number; two PMF, .40 caliber, machineguns, bearing no serial numbers; one PMF, .45 caliber, machinegun, bearing no serial number; and one PMF, 9mm, semi-automatic pistol, bearing no serial number. The purchased machineguns had MCDs affixed to them. MORENCY delivered the firearms in a box.”
PMFs are ghost guns with no serial numbers, “3D-printed, privately-made firearms.”
In total, the informant paid Morency $17,160 for the guns and ammunition – with the ammo going at $1 a bullet. Before and after the purchases, ATF agents and state troopers tracked Morency going into apartments on Lawrence Street and around the corner on Creston Street. Also:
“MORENCY has been in communication with CI-1 as recently as the week of November 3, 2025. MORENCY informed CI-1 that he had four firearms currently available for sale and may have more .”
