Police seize weapons, ammunition from Mineola home of Wen-Lone Chou, who allegedly ran shooting range near schools

Law-enforcement officials seized assault weapons, a ghost gun, high-capacity magazines, gun components and 6,000 rounds of ammunition while executing a search warrant at a Mineola home, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said Thursday.

Wen-Lone Chou, 67, whose yard borders a Mineola school district soccer field and is close to Chaminade High School and Jackson Avenue School, had operated a makeshift shooting range in the basement of his Marcellus Road home, Donnelly said at a news conference about the Wednesday search.

"All of this activity is extremely dangerous," Donnelly said. "All of it is illegal. But what I want to stress is that even more terrifying is that this illegal, dangerous activity was happening steps away from several schools. Hundreds of children going in and out of these schools every day."

Donnelly said there was no evidence that Chou planned to use the weapons in any sort of assault. She said law-enforcement officials are finding many people who possess ghost guns — untraceable weapons made from kits or 3D printers — are not hardened criminals.

"Increasingly, we find them in people we would otherwise trust — our neighbors," Donnelly said.

Chou was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and pleaded not guilty Thursday at an arraignment in First District Court in Hempstead.

District Court Judge Ryan Cronin ordered Chou detained in lieu of $250,000 cash bail, $625,000 bond or $1.25 million partially secured bond. He is scheduled to return to court March 5. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

His attorney, Marc Gann, did not return a request for comment. 

Donnelly said the U.S. Homeland Security Investigation’s Task Force, which includes the Nassau Sheriff’s Department, the New York State Police, the NYPD and several federal agencies, began investigating Chou last year after learning he had gone on an online shopping spree for firearm parts. Chou purchased 112 firearms parts between January 2025 and last month, Donnelly said. 

"For more than a year, this defendant allegedly bought dozens of firearm parts in a purchasing pattern that amounted to an immediate red flag for law enforcement. Our analysis led us to one conclusion: this defendant was assembling his own gun and possibly more," Donnelly said.

Chou's Nassau County pistol permit was revoked in 1999 because of a domestic incident, Donnelly said, but had no prior arrests. 

Authorities recovered a Sig Sauer 320 9 mm ghost gun, seven assault rifles, a hunting rifle and a revolver while executing the search warrant at Chou's home, Donnelly said. They also found 78 high-capacity magazines, components to assemble an MP5 assault weapon and a Glock switch, which she said could turn some of the weapons on a table in front of her into machine guns. 

"It's probably the scariest thing that he bought, to turn these weapons into weapons of mass killing," Donnelly said, holding up the Glock switch.