Leah B. Foley United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts | Department of Justice
A Brazilian national, Guilherme Fernandes-Tavares, was sentenced on Apr. 1 in federal court in Boston to four years in prison for selling firearms without a license. The sentencing was handed down by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris. Fernandes-Tavares, 32, will be subject to deportation after completing his sentence.
The case is significant because it involved the illegal sale of multiple firearms, including weapons with high-capacity magazines and altered serial numbers.
According to court records, Fernandes-Tavares pleaded guilty in November 2025 to one count of engaging in the business of dealing firearms without a license. He had been arrested in May 2024 on an unrelated state matter before being charged federally by criminal complaint in March 2025 and indicted later that July.
Prosecutors said that between January and May 2024, Fernandes-Tavares sold a total of eleven firearms across Eastern Massachusetts. On March 27, he sold a pistol equipped with a magazine capable of holding twenty-nine rounds. On May 7, he sold another pistol with its serial number removed; when questioned about this detail by a cooperating witness, Fernandes-Tavares reportedly said his source required him to obliterate the serial number.
The announcement was made by United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Thomas Greco, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (Boston Field Division); Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (New England); and David T. Wesling, Acting Field Office Director for Boston's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Reynolds from the Organized Crime & Gang Unit prosecuted the case.
