VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Editor's Note: The above video is from a previous story on Patrick Tate Adamiak from Oct. 24, 2022
A former Navy sailor from Virginia Beach was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for selling and possessing unregistered machine guns and for possessing unregistered destructive devices, the Department of Justice said.
Court documents show that Patrick Tate Adamiak was gathering unregistered, illegal machine guns and selling them online between October 2021 and April 2022.
According to prosecutors, Adamiak was a Master-at-Arms in the Navy at the time of his arrest.
Adamiak was arrested after a months-long investigation by agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
Court documents say in October of 2021, federal officers got information from a confidential source that Adamiak may be trafficking guns.
With help from this source, ATF investigators purchased several machine gun parts from Adamiak. Authorities sent Adamiak more than $15,000 for the weapons between October 2021 and March 2022.
Documents say Adamiak sold the guns out of his home on St. Mark Road in Virginia Beach’s Pembroke Meadows neighborhood, not far from Virginia Beach Town Center.
In April of 2022, court documents say federal agents trailed Adamiak as he left his home with several packages. Authorities stopped him, detained him, and searched his home.
A search warrant executed at his home found an additional 25 unregistered firearms, as well as two grenade launchers and two antitank missile launchers.
Adamiak was convicted following a trial in October 2022.