NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A U.S. Navy Master-at-Arms was sentenced to 20 years in prison for selling multiple illegal machine guns and for possessing several unregistered grenade and missile launchers.
28-year-old Patrick Tate Adamiak was sentenced Tuesday after being convicted back in October. Evidence presented at the trial showed Adamiak sold eight machine guns to an ATF informant between October 2021 and April 2022. He also had 25 more unregistered guns at his home when authorities executed a search warrant, along with two grenade launchers and two antitank missile launchers, all unregistered.
At Tuesday’s hearing, prosecutors shared further evidence that Adamiak actually engaged in gun trafficking since at least 2016. It wasn’t until he started having greater profits in recent years through his business, Black Dog Arsenal, that the ATF uncovered the scheme.
An affidavit filed early in the case showed the ATF informant reached out Adamiak via email to see if he could buy “Thompson things,” a coded reference to the Thompson submachine gun.
Prosecutors say Adamiak would send a “single cut” of the gun’s receiver, which he was not licensed to sell. The ATF says that portion is considered the “gun” and can “easily be made/restored into an operational machine gun.”