Federal Indictment Charges Man With Illegally Possessing Loaded Machine Gun in Chicago Park

A man has been indicted on a federal firearm charge for allegedly illegally possessing a loaded machine gun in a Chicago park.

Eddie Arguelles possessed the firearm on May 14, 2025, in Riis Park in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood of Chicago, according to an indictment returned Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago and a criminal complaint previously filed in the case.

The Glock handgun was equipped with a conversion device, also known as a “Glock switch” or “auto sear,” allowing the gun to fire multiple rounds with a single pull of the trigger.

Chicago Police officers responded to the scene after receiving calls of a person with a gun firing a shot in the park, the charges allege.

When officers approached Arguelles, he tried to drive away on a moped but lost control and fell to the ground on a football field in the park, the charges allege.

The officers took Arguelles into custody and discovered the firearm in his possession, the charges allege. He remains detained without bond.

The indictment charges Arguelles, 20, of Chicago, with one count of possession of a machine gun, which is punishable by a maximum sentence of ten years in federal prison. Arraignment is set for Sept. 17, 2025, at 11:30 a.m., before U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez. The U.S. Attorney’s Office will seek Arguelles’s continued pre-trial detention.

The indictment was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Christopher Amon, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and Larry Snelling, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Wesley Morrissette.

The investigation is being conducted in coordination with ATF’s Crime Gun Intelligence Center of Chicago. The CGIC is a centralized law enforcement hub that focuses exclusively on investigating and preventing gun violence in Chicago and throughout northern Illinois. The CGIC is an interagency collaboration that brings together federal, state, and local law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and intelligence analysts to move quickly to investigate and prosecute violent crimes.

The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

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Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

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