A sailor living in Virginia Beach was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday in U.S. District Court after being convicted of dealing illegal machine guns.
Patrick Tate Adamiak, 28, will spend two decades in prison for receiving, possessing, and transferring unregistered machine guns. Adamiak also was convicted of possessing two grenade launchers and two antitank missile launchers.
Adamiak was charged in May 2022 after authorities recovered 33 guns in his possession.
Between October 2021 and April 2022, Adamiak sold at least eight unregistered machine guns online to a confidential source with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
ATF then searched Adamiak’s Virginia Beach residence, recovering an additional 25 unregistered machine guns.
Adamiak was convicted after a four-day jury trial in October.
“Evidence presented at sentencing further revealed that Adamiak engaged in the unregulated sale and transfer of firearms beginning in at least 2016. Adamiak had just begun to make greater profits from his business, Black Dog Arsenal, when his firearms trafficking was discovered by law enforcement,” the news release read.
Adamiak is a first class master at arms in the Navy. According to the Navy’s career page, sailors who serve as a master at arms act as the Navy’s military police, providing security on ships, bases and installations.
He was assigned to Pre-Commissioning Unit John F. Kennedy at the time of the trial, a Navy spokesperson confirmed after Adamiak’s conviction.
