PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Johnston man pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Providence to charges of possessing two unregistered gun silencers, the U.S. attorney's office for the District of Rhode Island said.

Alessio Dandrea, 30, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy to two counts of possession of an unregistered firearm, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 11, 2027. Each count carries up to 10 years in prison.

According to court documents cited by prosecutors, U.S. Customs and Border Protection intercepted a package shipped from China and addressed to Dandrea on June 14, 2023. Inside was an AR-15 "lightning link" auto sear, a device that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives classifies as a machine gun and that is designed to convert a semi-automatic AR-15-style rifle into an automatic weapon, prosecutors said.

A court-authorized search of Dandrea's home by Homeland Security Investigations, the ATF and Johnston police led to the seizure of six guns and two silencers, one of them attached to a rifle, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Investigators determined that neither silencer was registered to Dandrea in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, as federal law requires, prosecutors said.

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