Three Minnesota men were caught trafficking machine guns through social media in a sting operation conducted in St. Cloud.
According to a press release, Rafael Carter Wesley, Avont Akira Drayton, and Kyrees Darius Johnson, aged 19, 21, and 22 respectively, have been sentenced to prison for a period ranging from just over a year to about eight years. It is worth noting that once their sentences have been completed, they will be subject to supervised release.
According to United States Attorney Andrew Luger, the Snapchat group “BLICCS&STICCS3” has been under investigation by his office since 2023. The group’s members have been found to be trafficking a combination of firearms and controlled substances to users located throughout the Twin Cities.
In March of 2023, an undercover law enforcement officer kickstarted an operation by sharing a photo of a Glock online. The post caught the attention of Wesley, who reached out to the officer, inquiring if he would be interested in trading the firearm for a “button” or “switch”. These terms are generally used to refer to an auto sear that is capable of converting firearms into fully automatic weapons. The officer agreed to pay Wesley $1,000 for three conversion devices and proposed that they make the exchange in St. Cloud. The transaction successfully took place on March 27th.
In April, Wesley took charge of facilitating various transactions in St. Paul and Minneapolis. In fact, he even impressed officers by installing an auto sear onto a weapon right in front of them during one of the purchases. As a result of these transactions, the officers were introduced to Johnson and made arrangements to meet Drayton.
Johnson, who had been convicted of four felonies and was prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition, utilized the organization to promote fentanyl.
In May, Drayton offered to sell the officers an auto sear for an AR-15, which was 3-D printed. Over the course of March to June 2023, six controlled buys were made.
They all eventually admitted to unlawfully possessing machine guns.
