The Pottstown man charged in a New Hanover road rage incident three months ago has been implicated in an illegal gun trafficking organization. Keith Chaney, 26, and eight others are accused of illegally buying and selling store-bought firearms in eight Pennsylvania counties.

            All nine suspects, including Lucas Groff, 28, an Earl Township resident who allegedly served as the group's 3D printing expert, were charged criminally in the Pottstown court of District Judge Edward Kropp.

            They face various criminal charges, including felony counts of corrupt organization, dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activity, criminal use of a communications facility, aggravated assault, crimes committed with firearms, persons not to possess firearms, illegal sale or transfer of firearms, possession of prohibited offensive weapons and criminal conspiracy.

            The perpetrators are accused of manufacturing and selling an unknown number of 3D-printed "ghost guns," suppressors – also known as silencers – and machine gun conversion devices, known as switches.

            Federal and state law enforcement agencies participated in the investigation that began on Feb. 1, when Pottstown police were dispatched to Pottstown Hospital for a stabbing victim.

            On Tuesday, July 30, the Montgomery County District Attorney, along with police chiefs from Pottstown Borough and Upper Merion and New Hanover townships, announced the charges.           

            A news release from D.A. Kevin Steele referenced Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry, Eric DeGree the special agent in charge from the U.S. Alcohol Tobacco and Firearm's Philadelphia Field Division and Paul Zavorski, a U.S. Postal Service supervisory postal inspector.

            The organization operated out of storage units and residences in Pottstown, where seven of the nine defendants lived. They allegedly purchased firearms in Montgomery, Berks, Bucks, Chester, Columbia, Lehigh, Wayne and Westmoreland counties. They kept some of the weapons for themselves, according to the news release.

            Authorities claim Groff purchased eight firearms. Several of the 3D items were allegedly manufactured at Groff's residence, according to the prepared statement.

            Chaney, one of seven participants living in Pottstown, is accused of making six illegal transfers.

            Law enforcement officials claim to have recovered 17 of the 31 firearms allegedly purchased by the group. One firearm purchased by one of the defendants, with its serial number obliterated, was recovered from a felon who was not allowed to possess a firearm on Dec. 6, 2019, by West Goshen Police.

           Authorities claim two of the weapons were recovered during arrests for the road rage incident.

            Chaney allegedly used one of them during the May 29 incident in New Hanover.

            According to municipal police, he shot at a vehicle in the area of Big and Middle Creek Roads while riding a motorcycle.

             New Hanover police arrested Chaney in June and charged him with two felony criminal counts of aggravated assault, along with two misdemeanor counts each of simple assault and recklessly endangering another person, according to information posted on a state judicial website.

            Chaney and Groff were both remanded to Montgomery County jail following a July 30 preliminary arraignment where Jenkintown District Judge R. Emmett Madden set their bail at $500,000 monetary. A preliminary hearing, before Kropp, for both defendants has been scheduled for 10 a.m. on Aug. 13, according to a unified judicial website.