Orlando, Florida – United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announces that a federal jury has found Jincheng Shi (St. Cloud, 28) guilty of aiding and abetting unlicensed firearms dealing and possession of a firearm as an alien admitted under a nonimmigrant visa. Shi faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison.
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 9, 2026.Shi was indicted on September 3, 2025.According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Shi was admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant work visa in 2022, placing him in a prohibited class of persons not legally allowed to possess firearms. Since then, Shi operated a firearms parts business through which he sold various firearms parts and accessories at gun shows and out of a rented storage unit. Codefendants Victor Lafontaine and Jose Maldonado were among his customers, who then assembled the parts into completed firearms and sold them without the required Federal Firearms License. The evidence at trial showed that Lafontaine sold firearms to prohibited persons, including convicted felons.
When executing a search warrant at Shi’s home on February 20, 2025, federal agents found multiple firearms, including the Ruger rifle depicted below: Trial evidence showed that Shi knew that his customers were assembling the firearms parts into completed firearms for sale.Shi was originally charged with six other individuals, including Lafontaine and Maldonado, as part of a gun trafficking operation. Shi’s six codefendants pleaded guilty and either have been sentenced or are awaiting sentencing.This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with assistance from the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the Orlando Police Department, the Winter Garden Police Department, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, the Apopka Police Department, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, and the Florida Highway Patrol. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Risha Asokan.This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.