L.I. Sporting Goods Store Owner Charged in Selling of Illegal Assault Weapons
John Ligurgo IIl, 43, and his son, Jovani, 2, were found dead in Rockbridge County, Va. in June 6, 2018, after he disappeared from his home in Coram. (Suffolk County Police Department)
(IBEXNews) - A Long Island sporting goods store ran a black market selling illegal assault weapons — including a rifle used by a Suffolk County father to kill his 2-year-old boy and himself in 2018, prosecutors said Thursday.
Chester Pergran, 53, the owner of Chester’s Hunting & Fishing, had 116 illegal assault weapons, more than 80 illegal gravity knives and 820 high-capacity magazines when police raided his Ronkonkoma store in Nov. 2018.
Pergran’s assault weapons cache included a loaded AK-47 near the front counter, Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini said.
He also had several lower receivers — which contain a weapon’s moving parts — without serial numbers. The parts could be used to build homemade, untraceable “ghost guns,” Sini said.
Lower receivers are legal to possess — though state lawmakers are working on bills to ban ghost guns in New York.
Pergan sold an assault weapon to John Ligurgo, 43, who on June 5, 2018 disappeared from his Coram home with his 2-year-old son, Jovani, after the boy’s mom dropped him off for a visit. Police found their bodies in Ligurgo’s car in western Virginia.
Police recovered the blood-splattered rifle he used to kill his son and himself, and tracked it back to Chester’s, where Ligurgo bought it in 2017, Sini said.
“On its surface, this sporting good store, this firearm store looked legit, right there in plain sight,” Sini said. “But what was really happening was it was trafficking in illegal firearms.... He had no right to sell any of these weapons in New York State.”
Pergan had a federal firearms license allowing him to sell rifles and shotguns. He surrendered his New York State dealer in firearms license in 2015 as state officials were moving to revoke it, Sini said.
The New York license allowed him to purchase, possess and sell assault weapons out of state or to law enforcement personnel.
Even though Pergan lost his New York license, he bought assault weapons from out-of-state retailers and distributors, and sold them to people not allowed to have them, Sini said.
Pergan was arraigned Thursday on a 66-count indictment, including criminal possession and sale of a weapon charges. He could face up to 25 years behind bars.
He was ordered held on $800,000 bail.