Manhasset man 'accumulated a massive amount of guns,' Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder says

A 69-year-old Manhasset man, who was expected to be sentenced to probation next week for illegally possessing 18 firearms, was rearrested Thursday after a raid of his home turned up another cache of unregistered guns and other weapons, Nassau police said Friday.

Police executed a search warrant of Matthew Spigner's Circle Drive home and recovered 12 pistols, six revolvers, large capacity ammunition feeding devices, silencers, ammunition, gun parts, assorted knives and a cane sword, Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said at a Mineola news conference with federal and local law enforcement officials.

"He accumulated a massive amount of guns that we seized," Ryder said.

Authorities will obtain a search warrant for Spigner's home computer to determine if the weapons were for personal use or to be sold, he said.

Spigner was charged with one count each of first and second-degree criminal possession of weapon and two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Spigner is expected to be arraigned at a hospital on Saturday where prosecutors will ask that he be held on $500,000 bond. It was not immediately clear why Spigner was hospitalized.

Kimberly Lerner, Spigner's Carle Place-based attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Violent crime continues to adversely impact communities across this nation and Long Island is not immune to this threat," said Manuel DeCastro, supervisory special agent from the Department of Homeland Security Investigations. "And at the heart of it are individuals who go beyond lawful means to acquire illicit firearms."

Spigner, who previously worked as a technical writer for several financial rating agencies, including Fitch and Moody's, was first arrested in May 2021 after Second Squad detectives, responding to an aggravated harassment investigation, discovered an unlicensed handgun in his home.

In total, detectives found four pistols, four revolvers, nine assault rifles, two silencers, 33 high capacity magazines, a bullet proof vest and other gun paraphernalia, said Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly.

In February, he pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and was expected to be sentenced on April 12 to five years probation, based on his age and lack of a criminal record, Donnelly said.

"Needless to say his actions have jeopardized his plea in his prior case," she said.

Law enforcement officials said Spigner continued to accumulate illegal weapons during the past year.

On April 2, Customs and Border Protection officials at JFK Airport intercepted an express mail package from Poland to Spigner's home containing an illegal silencer, officials said. Agents notified Nassau police who allowed the package to continue to Spigner's home before executing a search warrant on Thursday.

Salvatore Ingrassia, port director for Customs and Border Protection at JFK Airport, said Poland is one of several international hot spots for exporting illegal firearms.

Packages, he said, are targeted often because of their manifest, weight or even the shape of the box.

"Since 2018, Customs and Border Protection officers at JFK Airport have seized more than 37,000 weapons, weapon components, ammunition and other parts," Ingrassia said. "Of the 37,000, about 9,000 were silencers, many of which are identical to what we see here today."

Through this point last year, Nassau police seized 60 illegal guns, Donnelly said. To date in 2022, authorities have recovered 126 firearms, she said.

"The volume of firearms we have seized since this new year is truly staggering," Donnelly said. "There are too many guns out on our streets and too many people who shouldn't be carrying them carrying them. Fire power like this in someone's hands is dangerous."

Across the state, 2,528 illegal firearms have been seized in 2022, about half from New York City, according to data released Friday by Gov. Kathy Hochul's office.

That figure includes 1,753 firearms that have been removed from the streets in the two months since Hochul convened an Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns in late-January.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.