Prison for all 3 men whose Snapchat gun ring sold ‘switches,’ ghost guns around the Twin Cities

A lengthy undercover federal investigation into a Snapchat-based gun ring selling illegal “switches” and ghost guns around the Twin Cities metro concluded this week with the third and final sentence from a trio of young men arrested last year.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank on Tuesday sentenced Kyrees Darius Johnson, 22, of Minneapolis, to nearly eight years in prison to wrap up the case — by far the longest prison term given to any of the three charged and owing to Johnson’s lengthier criminal record.

According to court records, an investigator from the Central Minnesota Violent Offender Task Force notified the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in March 2023 of a Snapchat group called “BLICCS&STICCS3″ that was suspected of being used to help traffic machine guns, other firearms and illicit drugs in the Twin Cities and outside the metro.

The investigator shared screenshots and videos of several people selling, promoting and operating machine gun conversion devices — also often called “switches” or “auto sears” and are used to convert semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic weapons. Undercover officers then carried out about six controlled buys with various members of the group between March and June 2023. These deals yielded eight conversion devices, a “ghost gun” and one Glock already equipped with a switch.

Also charged, and since sentenced, were Rafael Carter Wesley, 19, of Brooklyn Center, and Avont Akira Drayton, 21, of Burnsville. Frank sentenced Wesley to 14 months in prison last week and imposed a two-year sentence on Drayton in April. All three men will also be under supervised release for three years upon leaving prison. The three were first charged in September 2023 and each pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful possession of machine guns.

During one of the deals, Wesley arranged for undercover officers to meet Drayton to buy a 3D-printed drop-in machinegun conversion device for an AR-style rifle for $550. Drayton showed the undercover officers a video on his phone of himself shooting a gun with the drop-in device inserted. He commented to the officers that the drop-in made the firearm shoot “way too [expletive] fast.”

Johnson, who was sentenced this week, now needs a wheelchair since being shot 14 times during what prosecutors alleged to be an attempted carjacking in August 2023. Johnson’s attorney, Catherine Turner, described the altercation as a violent dispute between Johnson and another man linked to Johnson’s occasional girlfriend.

Turner said Johnson first procured a gun after returning home from a prior prison stint for assault and amid exposure to “sketchy strangers” in his girlfriend’s life and tumult surrounding his family.

“He felt that he was safer armed with weapons; the more guns he had, the safer he felt,” said Turner in a court memo. She added that his gun ownership introduced him to enthusiasts “with whom he went shooting and started trading and selling, providing him income.” But, she said, he made most of his money from street racing and modifying cars.

Johnson’s criminal history includes two felony drug convictions, a gross misdemeanor for carrying a pistol without a permit after brandishing a firearm during a public altercation, second-degree assault for chasing down his ex-girlfriend’s car and ramming it with his own, and fleeing a police officer. Before the federal charges, Johnson also had pending felony cases including allegedly firing a gun into the air after street racing and one for aggravated robbery and carjacking related to his August 2023 shooting.

Wesley had no prior convictions but did have two pending felony cases involving his possession of a ghost gun and drugs. Drayton had been convicted of two gross misdemeanors: property damage in 2021 after pursuing a victim in his vehicle and ramming it twice and in 2022 for possessing a loaded gun without a permit.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ruth Shnider countered in her own arguments to Frank that Johnson’s Snapchat posts were “not the actions of a young man merely curious about guns or concerned for his personal safety.”

“Johnson was a trafficker — he chose to support himself by selling guns and drugs — plain and simple,” Shnider wrote. “He knew that switches were a hot commodity, and he knew how to market and sell them throughout the state at the highest profit to himself.”