Charges: Federal agents link a dozen guns bought in northern Minnesota to California crime scenes

Each time federal investigators traced one of 12 firearms allegedly bought by a northern Minnesota man, they turned up in similar locations and circumstances: crime scenes in California.

Two of the pistols were recovered there barely a month after their purchase in Minnesota.

Federal agents investigating a rash of suspected straw purchases by Xavier Sibrian, 28, of Badger, Minn., charged him this week with illegally possessing three machine gun conversion devices found in a search of his rural northern Minnesota home on Wednesday.

According to an affidavit from an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), an industry operations intelligence specialist with the agency flagged Sibrian as a potential straw purchaser in March. The ATF, during routine inspection at a federal firearms licensee in Roseau, Minn., later found that Sibrian purchased 24 firearms across five sales at the business.

An agent then zeroed in on 12 gun traces in which Sibrian was the original buyer. All of those purchases were in Minnesota, yet all 12 guns were seized in crimes in California. It is highly unusual for firearms legally bought in Minnesota to later turn up in crimes in California; according to the ATF, Minnesota is not among the top 15 “source states” for crime guns in any year dating back to 2014.

According to charges, the 12 guns later found in California were first purchased at six different stores in Minnesota. The average time between the purchase of the guns and their seizure in crimes was about 123 days. Two Beretta APX 9mm pistols were recovered from crime scenes in California just 33 days after Sibrian allegedly bought them in Minnesota. All but one of the guns were pistols.

The ATF considers anything under a year to be unusual among law-abiding firearms purchasers and possessors and a common indicator of straw purchasing.

According to the affidavit, a special agent from the Department of Homeland Security Investigations told the ATF in May that agents intercepted a package addressed to Sibrian that contained two fully assembled machine gun conversion devices made for a Glock firearm. Such devices, commonly referred to as “switches” or “auto sears,” enable firearms to be fired fully automatic with a single trigger pull.

The ATF searched Sibrian’s Badger home on Wednesday and found three machine gun conversion devices and part of a fourth, all in a tin container under a bed in the primary bedroom. The container also held unserialized firearm suppressors and handwritten notes that appeared to be instructions for creating a C4 explosive.

In a brief interview with the ATF agent, Sibrian allegedly admitted to ordering the machine gun conversion devices but denied having fired them and said he didn’t know if they worked.

When asked about the sheet of instructions for making C4, Sibrian told the agent he wanted to talk to an attorney. The agent wrote in his affidavit that the switches have not been test fired but said that the three found in Sibrian’s home appeared to be fully functional.

A message was left seeking comment from an attorney listed as representing Sibrian.

Sibrian made his first federal court appearance on the charges of unlawful possession of a machine gun Thursday. A federal magistrate judge ordered Sibrian be released under conditions that included not possessing firearms or destructive devices, limiting travel to within Minnesota and submitting to drug testing. He is next scheduled to return to court in Duluth on Tuesday for a preliminary examination hearing.