New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly held a news conference earlier this week to brag about the largest gun bust in the city's history.

But the fact is police would have been none-the-wiser had an aspiring rapper from Brooklyn not bragged on Instagram about selling guns out of his Ocean Hill recording studio.

Matthew Best, who goes by his stage name Neno Best, first caught the attention of NYPD narcotics investigators last year, when he began posting Instagram photos of cash and guns he claimed to be selling with his friend Omole Adedji.

The investigators forwarded the intel along, and a months-long undercover operation was launched to smoke out the source of Best's illegal weapon stash.

An undercover detective managed to trace the guns back to two gun runners based in both North and South Carolina who were sending dozens of guns up to New York to be sold through Best, Adedji, and others.

With the necessary evidence in hand, the cops shut down the gun trafficking ring and took 19 people into custody.

All told, the operation netted some 254 firearms, including at least 36 guns that were found to have been stolen.

Long story short, don't post about your illegal gun trafficking ring on Instagram. Also, don't run an illegal gun trafficking ring.

[screengrabs via NYDN, Geekosystem, The Verge]