Home New Haven Press Releases 2009 Jury Finds Berlin Man Guilty of Illegally Possessing Machine Guns, Silencers, Grenades And IEDs
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Jury Finds Berlin Man Guilty of Illegally Possessing Machine Guns, Silencers, Grenades And IEDs

U.S. Attorney’s Office March 30, 2009
  • District of Connecticut (203) 821-3700

Nora R. Dannehy, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that on Friday, March 27, a federal jury in New Haven found ALAN D. ZALESKI, 47, of Berlin, Connecticut, guilty of 15 counts of illegally possessing fully automatic machine guns, one count of possession of a fully automatic machine gun with an obliterated serial number, and 12 counts of possession of numerous unregistered weapons, including a sawed-off shotgun, silencers, grenades and improvised explosive devices or “IEDs.” The trial before Senior United States District Judge Ellen Bree Burns began on March 25 and the verdict was returned late Friday afternoon.

According to the evidence provided at trial, in 2005, a tree cutter contracted by a local utility company went to ZALESKI’s heavily-wooded property in Berlin to cut back some trees from power lines and inadvertently tripped over one of several tripwires set up on the property, triggering a percussion explosive that detonated and caused him permanent hearing loss in one ear. When the utility worker returned to the property in August 2006 and noticed the tripwires again, he contacted the police.

Law enforcement officers responded and spent the next three days searching ZALESKI’s property and seizing numerous weapons. During the course of the search, officers seized dozens of fully automatic machine guns and semi-automatic firearms, multiple rifles and handguns, as well as silencers, fragmentation grenades, chemical grenades, smoke grenades and various homemade pipe bombs and IEDs. ZALESKI also was found in possession of more than 67,000 rounds of live ammunition, and numerous components for making additional grenades, IEDs and bombs, including ammonium nitrate and nitro methane. Investigators also discovered that ZALESKI’s property was protected by several booby traps, including tripwires connected to percussion explosives and camouflaged plywood boards on the ground with nails sticking up through them.

ZALESKI also possessed dozens of how-to books on making bombs and IEDs; converting semi-automatic weapons to fully automatic weapons; and making homemade silencers.

“I want to thank our federal, state and local law enforcement partners who investigated this matter and removed dozens of dangerous illegal weapons from an individual who was not licensed to possess them,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Dannehy. “Their efforts, combined with the efforts of a concerned citizen who alerted law enforcement to this potentially dangerous situation, may very well have prevented a tragic event from occurring.”

Law enforcement worked over a three-day period in August 2006 to seize more than 600 separate items of evidentiary value from ZALESKI’s residence, one of the largest seizures of illegal weapons and other paraphernalia in state history.

Each of the 15 counts of unlawfully possessing machine guns carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years, possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years, and each of the 12 counts of unlawfully possessing silencers and destructive devices carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.

Following the verdict, ZALESKI, who has been out on bond since February 2007, was remanded to the custody of the United States Marshal Service.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Connecticut State Police Bomb Squad, Emergency Services Unit and Major Crime Squad, and the Berlin, New Britain and New Haven Police Departments.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Paul Murphy and Stephen Reynolds.

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