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May 18, 2024

Feds: Anoka man with violent anti

An Anoka man who federal prosecutors say talked about joining a loosely organized anti-government extremist movement has been sentenced to nearly 6½ years in prison for illegal possession of a machine

An Anoka man who federal prosecutors say talked about joining a loosely organized anti-government extremist movement has been sentenced to nearly 6½ years in prison for illegal possession of a machine gun and distribution of methamphetamine.

Darrian Mitchell Nguyen, 50, pleaded guilty to the charges in March and was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court in St. Paul. He’ll be on 10 years of supervised release after his prison term.

According to court documents, the FBI began investigating Nguyen in April 2022 after a buyer was arrested for possession of meth in 2020 and became a paid informant. He told agents that Nguyen said he had amassed a cache of weapons to be prepared for violence and talked about joining the Three Percenters, a loosely organized anti-government extremist movement; federal officials noted they didn’t have information he had joined a militia group.

The informant told FBI agents that Nguyen, who had a Three Percenter flag in his garage, talked about shooting or “blowing up” liberals. He mentioned Black Lives Matter members as being targets.

At the FBI’s request, the informant met with Nguyen on July 13, 2022, to settle a debt from 2020; instead Nguyen asked for two fully-automatic assault rifles. Later, in text messages, Nguyen asked for four auto sears and a short-barreled rifle equipped with an auto sear, which allows a semi-automatic gun to fire continuously like an automatic.

Nguyen also texted a link to a Facebook post of a nearly seven-minute video of a prominent Donald Trump supporter spouting conspiracy theories around the FBI’s search of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home. Nguyen later told the informant he believed Trump should lead a coup d’état.

During another meeting, Nguyen told the informant he was making and selling meth and showed him a hidden room in his garage where it was stashed. He sold the informant 7.1 grams of meth for $300.

Nguyen was arrested Oct. 4 at his home during the planned the weapons deal. Law enforcement recovered the auto sears and machine gun, as well as an additional 22 firearms from a hidden room inside the home, including an unregistered short-barreled shotgun.

Minnesota court records show Nguyen did not have a previous criminal record, other than misdemeanor driving offenses.

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