Missing UES Car License Plate Leads To Ghost Gun Arrest: NYPD

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A "routine" car stop for a missing license plate resulted in an arrest after cops found an illegal and loaded ghost gun inside the car, officials said.

Angel Maisonet, 20, was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a loaded gun, driving without a license and for driving with a missing license plate, police said.

On Wednesday, officers pulled over a car for what the 19th Precinct called a "routine car stop" after noticing the vehicle was missing a front license plate near East 84th Street and Lexington Avenue, according to police spokespersons.

A routine car stop for a missing front license plate results in an arrest & a loaded illegal ghost gun recovered!

The known gang member driving was detained when our Public Safety cops stopped the car for a minor infraction & discovered this loaded firearm with no serial number! pic.twitter.com/CbpW94QYho
— NYPD 19th Precinct (@NYPD19Pct) September 4, 2023

Once stopped, officers discovered that the driver, Maisonet, had a loaded firearm with no serial number.

"The known gang member driving was detained when our Public Safety cops stopped the car for a minor infraction & discovered this loaded firearm with no serial number!" the 19th Precinct wrote in a post on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.

Drivers with missing, forged or altered plates has been an endemic problem since the pandemic, and the increased use of automated traffic enforcement, began in recent years. And some say that despite past public declarations of crackdowns, enforcement has been lax this year.

The NYPD arrested 1,777 drivers for "forged or altered plates" as of June, reports StreetsblogNYC. The transit news site wrote that if that rate holds, it would be an 11 percent drop compared to 2022, when 4,199 drivers were arrested for the same crime.