Ghost guns, fentanyl and cocaine seized by Detroit police in major bust

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Detroit police scored a major bust of ghost guns, and thousands of dollars in drugs. An ex-con is now facing several felony charges and investigators say the key to it all, was good police work.

"Great hit, these are dangerous guns, and again Randy, dope and guns," Cmdr. Eric Decker said. "Unfortunately a lot of our violence always has been and continues to be, around dope and guns."

Now a few more are off the streets and Terrance Burley is on the hook for it – after cops kicked in his door last week.

"We're looking at close to 200 grams of fentanyl, which everybody knows, fentanyl is killing people out here every day," Decker said. "Almost a hundred grams of cocaine and some pills."

Decker, from DPD’s Organized Crime Unit, says officers seized about $330,000 worth of narcotics as well as a small treasure trove of weapons including finished and unfinished, unserialized firearms or so-called ghost guns inside Burley’s home on Wilshire near Chalmers.

"Upper lowers for the AR-type thing. jigs to manufacture these, the tool and dyes to manufacture these weapons," Decker said.

Decker suspects Burley was making those unserialized weapons to sell on the street to other prohibited persons, like felons, who cannot otherwise buy guns because most firearm transactions require a background check.

"I'm a gun owner and a big supporter of gun rights and there is a right way to get guns," Decker said. "We have laws on the books, we have reasons why people should not possess a firearm. One of them, the big one, is (if) you are a convicted felon. You have used a gun in the past, and you have committed a crime. And those are the people going through illegal trades to get guns."

Decker says Burley popped up on their radar while investigating a failed drug buy at another location.

"As a customer went up to the house, it appeared they were out of product. It happens," he said. "Officers followed that person to this place that wasn’t on our radar at that time and said ok, (and) saw transactions and put surveillance on it, and we hit the door."

Burley has a prior armed robbery and drug conviction. As a felon, it’s illegal for him to have these guns in his possession.

Burley’s arrest provides little comfort to one neighbor who witnessed the east side neighborhood’s decline over the past several decades. He did not want his face shown on camera.

"It’s comforting to see it go, but it’s also in the back of your mind you’re saying to yourself, ‘Who’s the next?’ That’s just the reality of it: Next man up, who is the next man. The next man might be worse than him."

Police say this investigation started with a concerned resident calling in a drug complaint on the 244-dope hotline. Officers want residents to call that line if they suspect drugs being dealt in their neighborhood.