Teen arrested after posting photos with illegal machine gun conversion on Instagram

Prosecutors have filed a motion to keep an 18-year-old behind bars after police alleged the teen had posted social media photos with an illegal gun conversion device.

Wyatt Ruiz is charged with unlawful possession of a handgun by a person under 19 and unlawful possession of a weapon conversion device. He was arrested Friday and booked in the Metropolitan Detention Center. 

"Possessing an illegally modified handgun is extremely dangerous behavior that threatens community safety," states a pretrial detention motion. "The court can assume defendant knew it was illegal for him to possess a firearm and modify it illegally and the court should not expect him to have any more respect for conditions of release."

A federal arrest warrant was issued for Ruiz on Tuesday. Documents for that warrant weren't publicly available.

Albuquerque police on Nov. 11 reviewed an Instagram account — later confirmed to be linked to Ruiz — and found photos of multiple guns and illegal machine gun conversion devices, also known as Glock switches, which modify firearms to make them fully automatic, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. 

Officers issued a search warrant for the Instagram account and confirmed Ruiz as the owner, the complaint states. Ruiz had posted multiple Instagram stories holding guns equipped with the switches, including one photo that shows two guns and the caption "just gave my Glock a new BBL," in reference to the switch on the gun. 

"I have been able to observe (Ruiz) post the firearm a plethora of times," an officer wrote in the complaint.

Prior to his charges from November, Ruiz was charged in early September on one count of receiving a stolen vehicle after police received a report that Ruiz and an accomplice met up at an apartment, pointed a gun at a man and robbed him of his belongings, leaving him tied up in an apartment for over four hours, according to the complaint. 

The case was dismissed without prejudice and an order states that the court was not able to find probable cause to support any felony offense.

Nakayla McClelland covers crime and breaking news. Reach her at nmcclelland@abqjournal.com or at 505-823-3857.