A Lexington Park man is facing seven charges, including possession of a machine gun, after St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office detectives searched his home Wednesday and found a handgun illegally modified to fire fully automatically, along with suspected cocaine and more than $10,000 in cash.
Deputies from the sheriff’s office’s Criminal Investigations Division served search warrants at a residence in the 21000 block of Mary Margaret Court in Lexington Park on Wednesday morning, according to the sheriff’s office. Investigators recovered suspected cocaine, suspected crack cocaine, drug paraphernalia, a Cobra CA-380 handgun, a Glock 23 .40-caliber handgun fitted with what the sheriff’s office described as an illegally installed rapid-fire conversion device, and $10,216 in cash.
Ofori Holmes, 45, was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance, simple possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of a rapid-fire trigger activator, possession and use of a machine gun, two counts of possession of a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime, and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school. He is being held at the St. Mary’s County Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Leonardtown pending a bond hearing.
The device recovered from Holmes’s Glock — commonly known as a “Glock switch” or auto sear — is a small aftermarket part that fits onto the back of certain semi-automatic pistols, allowing the gun to fire continuously with a single trigger pull rather than one shot per pull. Because they convert an ordinarily semi-automatic pistol into what functions as a fully automatic weapon, the devices are treated as machine guns under both federal law and Maryland’s own 2024 statute banning their possession. The National Firearms Act imposes a mandatory federal registration requirement on machine guns that switches cannot satisfy, making possession of the device alone — even unattached to a firearm — a federal felony that can carry up to 10 years in prison.
Law enforcement agencies nationwide have reported a sharp rise in switch seizures in recent years; the ATF has said recoveries of the devices surged more than sevenfold between 2019 and 2023, and the agency has recovered more than 31,000 machine gun conversion devices over the past five years. The devices, which can be produced with a 3D printer for a few dollars or purchased on the black market for as little as $50, have drawn growing concern from law enforcement because they can turn a standard pistol magazine into what functions as fully automatic fire in under a second. Maryland was among the earlier states to specifically outlaw the devices, doing so in 2024 as part of a broader wave of state-level bans that has since spread to more than two dozen states.
The additional charge alleging drug activity within 1,000 feet of a school reflects Maryland’s enhanced penalty provisions for distribution offenses that occur near schools, which carry stiffer potential sentences than standard drug distribution charges regardless of whether any school-related harm actually occurred. The two firearm-in-relation-to-drug-trafficking counts similarly reflect Maryland’s practice of charging firearms found alongside drug distribution evidence as a separate, additional offense from simple weapons possession.
The St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office’s Criminal Investigations Division, which led Wednesday’s search, is the unit within the agency responsible for investigating major crimes, including drug distribution and firearms offenses, and works alongside patrol deputies and the department’s other specialized units on longer-term investigations that culminate in search warrant operations like Wednesday’s.
The sheriff’s office did not indicate how long Holmes had been under investigation before Wednesday’s search or say whether additional charges or arrests are expected. As with all pending criminal cases, Holmes is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
Wednesday’s arrest is one of several in recent years in which St. Mary’s County investigators have recovered illegally modified firearms alongside drug distribution evidence, a pairing law enforcement officials say has become increasingly common as switches have proliferated nationally. Sheriff’s offices across Maryland have highlighted similar cases in recent months as the state’s 2024 ban on the devices has moved from the legislative to the enforcement stage, with local agencies working alongside federal partners including the ATF to identify and prosecute cases involving the illegal conversions.
