Press Release
BROTHERS SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR POSSESSING BOMBS, ASSAULT WEAPONS AND 3D-PRINTED GUNS IN THEIR ASTORIA APARTMENT
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Andrew Hatziagelis was sentenced to 10 years in prison and his brother Angelo Hatziagelis was sentenced to four years in prison for possessing explosive devices, assault weapons, 3-D printed ghost gun pistols and ammunition in an Astoria apartment. Instructions for making a variety of bombs and anarchist propaganda were also found during a court-authorized search of the residence in January 2024.
District Attorney Katz said: “The investigative efforts of my Crime Strategies and Intelligence Bureau along with the work of our law enforcement partners at the NYPD, Homeland Security and the State Police led to the discovery of an arsenal of weapons inside the defendants’ apartment in early 2024. There was even a ‘hit list’ with unspecified ‘cops, judges, politicians, celebrities’ written on it. The seizure of these guns and explosive devices averted a potential tragedy. Today, justice was served, and Andrew and Angelo Hatziagelis will go to prison for their actions.”
Andrew Hatziagelis, 41, and Angelo Hatziagelis, 52, both of 36th Avenue in Astoria, pleaded guilty last month before Supreme Court Justice Toni Cimino to criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, and manufacture, transport, disposition and defacement of weapons. Andrew additionally pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a weapon in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree with intent to use unlawfully.
Judge Cimino today sentenced Andrew to 10 years in prison and Angelo to four years in prison, each to be followed by five years of post-release supervision.
DA Katz said that, according to the charges, members of the Queens District Attorney’s Crime Strategies and Intelligence Bureau launched an investigation into the purchase of firearm component parts and the manufacture of ghost guns by the defendants dating back to September 2020.
Members of the NYPD joined the investigation to assist in the collection of additional data and a search warrant was secured.
On January 17, 2024, members of the Queens District Attorney’s Office, the NYPD, Homeland Security and the State Police executed a search warrant at the brothers’ residence on 36th Avenue in Astoria, resulting in their arrests and the seizure of operational improvised explosive devices (IEDs), a partially constructed trip-wire IED, two loaded AR-15 style ghost guns, 9 mm ghost gun pistols, 9 mm 3D-printed ghost gun pistols, over 600 rounds of ammunition for each of the firearms, body armor, high-capacity ammunition feeding devices, metal knuckles, a radio set to the frequency of the 114th Precinct, nine pyrotechnic smoke bombs, a 3D printer and numerous notebooks containing instructions on the manufacture of explosive devices and anarchist related propaganda. A “hit list,” with “cops, judges, politicians, celebrities” and “banker scum” scrawled on it was also found.
Upon execution of the search warrant at the apartment complex, members of the NYPD Bomb Squad were called to respond and subsequently evacuated the building due to the discovery of the live IEDs.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Bello, of the District Attorney’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau, prosecuted the case with the assistance of Intelligence Analysts Bushra Ahmed, Kathryn Isaac, and Supervising Intelligence Analyst Victoria Filipe of the Crime Strategies and Intelligence Bureau, under the joint supervision of Assistant District Attorney Shanon LaCorte, Bureau Chief of the Crime Strategies and Intelligence Bureau, along with Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Sennett, Bureau Chief of the Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau, under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney of Investigations Gerard Brave.