An Ontario man has been arrested and charged after border agency officers seized multiple illegal 3D-printed firearms at mail and cargo facilities in the Greater Toronto Area and Vancouver.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced the arrest of 33-year-old Reza Nezamabadi from Aurora, Ont., on Jan. 6, following the discovery last year of packages containing firearm devices and 3D printing equipment used to build AR-15 style semi-automatic firearms.
The operation began when CBSA officers at international mail and cargo processing facilities in Mississauga and Vancouver intercepted multiple suspicious packages, the border agency said. These “falsely declared” packages, containing prohibited firearm devices and 3D printing equipment, were all destined for the same address in the York Region.
Border services officers executed a search warrant at Nezamabadi’s residence in Aurora on Nov. 12, 2024, where they seized four 3D-printed prohibited firearms, two prohibited devices, one restricted firearm, two 3D printers, multiple suppressors and parts, and various AR components, tools, and accessories.
Nezamabadi faces nine charges related to the manufacturing, smuggling, and possession of illegal firearms and devices. He is set to appear in court on Jan. 8.
The arrest was part of a broader effort by the CBSA’s Ontario Firearms Smuggling Enforcement Team (OFSET) to combat the illegal manufacturing and trafficking of firearms in Ontario.
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“Our Intelligence and Criminal Investigations team were vigilant throughout the investigation into this attempt at cross-border smuggling and successfully prevented these illicit firearms and prohibited devices from reaching our communities,” OFSET director Abeid Morgan said in the press release.
‘Ghost Guns’
The threat of 3D-printed firearms, also known as “ghost guns,” has been a concern for Canadian authorities in recent years.
A suspicious package destined for Manitoba was intercepted by CBSA officers in September of 2021 at the Mississauga International Mail Processing Centre. The package, which originated from the United States, contained undeclared firearm components and metal parts used to reinforce the plastic frame of a 3D-printed handgun.
The CBSA and RCMP jointly executed a search warrant on Dec. 16, 2021, at a residence in rural Hanover, Man., arresting a 34-year-old man who, officials said, did not have a valid licence to produce or possess firearms.
Then-Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino had previously raised alarms about the “growing threat to Canadians” posed by 3D-printed weapons, following a large-scale national operation triggered by a separate 2021 incident involving the importation of firearm parts for 3D-printed weapons. That operation began after CBSA intelligence officers identified a shipment of weapon rails designed for 3D-printed firearms, originating from a known U.S. exporter flagged in previous CBSA investigations.
By September 2021, investigators identified the importer as a Montreal resident with a “serious criminal history” who was facing a weapons prohibition order. This led to the launch of a national operation to combat 3D-printed firearms, which culminated in June 2023 when criminal investigators from the CBSA, along with multiple law enforcement agencies, executed 46 search warrants across eight provinces: British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
