Camden County man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for his role in ‘ghost guns’ trafficking ring, AG says

A Camden County man who was a leading member of a criminal ring that trafficked in untraceable “ghost gun” assault rifles and cocaine was sentenced Friday to 14 years in state prison, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said.

Christopher Stoner, 43, of Lindenwold, was one of 12 people arrested last year after a yearlong investigation dubbed “Operation Stone Wall” by the Attorney General’s Office and the New Jersey State Police. The arrests were the first following a law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in 2018 making it a crime to buy, manufacture, possess, or sell ghost guns in New Jersey, prosecutors said.

Ghost guns are homemade, 3D-printed, or partially assembled firearms sold with the parts needed to create a fully operational gun. They don’t have serial numbers and thus are untraceable by law enforcement.

Friday’s virtual sentencing before Camden County Superior Court Judge Judith Charny followed Stoner’s guilty plea in February to charges of cocaine distribution, unlawful possession of an assault firearm, and purchasing firearm parts to manufacture untraceable firearms.

Operation Stone Wall began as a probe of a cocaine-distribution ring centered in Lindenwold and then broadened to include guns, authorities have said. Fourteen guns were recovered in the investigation, including six unregistered ghost gun AR-15 assault rifles that prosecutors say Stoner conspired with others to sell. The guns allegedly were sold for $1,100 to $1,300 each, they said.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said the case was significant and the sentence, appropriate. “This prison sentence reflects our resolve to hold gun traffickers like Stoner accountable and to protect our communities from the grave danger posed when ghost guns are brought into New Jersey and sold into the hands of criminals,” he said in a statement.

Stoner’s attorney, Andrew Bitar, in a phone interview Friday, disputed that his client was a leading member of the trafficking ring, saying his involvement did not rise to that level and contending the evidence didn’t support it.

The negotiated sentence was a “very favorable deal” considering that Stoner could have faced decades behind bars and because of the coronavirus pandemic, it “would take forever for him to get to trial,” Bitar said.

Prosecutors said two other leading members of the criminal network — Nicholas Cilien, 40, of Mount Ephraim, and Paul Corum, 44, of Lindenwold — pleaded guilty in December and await sentencing.

Three other defendants previously pleaded guilty and face sentences of probation. The charges against the other defendants, including a 13th man charged last year, are still pending.