Star Tribune
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, 23, of Minneapolis, to nearly 8 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 (ATF) 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 machinegun 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, 20, of Brooklyn Center, and Avont Akira Drayton, 21, of Burnsville. Frank sentenced Wesley to 14 months in prison last week, and imposed a 2-year sentence on Drayton in April. All three men will also be under supervised release for 3 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, has been confined to 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 that 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, fleeing a police officer. Before the federal charges, Johnson also had pending felony cases included 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. He was also convicted 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.”
Mahtomedi’s volleyball team started the 2023 season 3-7. But still, the Zephyrs peaked at the right time and made it to state for a second year in a row.
This go-around, undefeated Mahtomedi (10-0) hasn’t taken long at all to start clicking.
On Tuesday night, 14 kills each from senior outside hitter Kaili Malvey and senior middle blocker Silvie Graetzer helped the Zephyrs sweep visiting South St. Paul 25-17, 25-18, 25-10.
After the program’s first trip to state in 2022, then returning in 2023, the team is thriving. With seven seniors and five juniors on the roster and all its starters returning, Mahtomedi “started at such a higher point this season,” Graetzer said. “And now our end goal is so much higher. We’re not there to get to state. We’re there to do damage at state.”
Against South St. Paul (14-4), the Zephyrs dealt with injuries to two sidelined starters heading into the match and faced the Packers’ high-swinging outside hitter, senior Alaina Panagiotopoulos.
“[Our injured players, Sahar Ramaley and Katie Hergenrader] pushed us to play for each other, and I think we really executed,” Malvey said.
Nine digs and 14 service receptions by junior libero Claire Crothers, plus six blocks by Graetzer, helped numb the swinging sting of Panagiotopoulos’ eight kills. They prepped for her in practice, focusing on eye work in blocking drills and taking up space on the court.
Another offseason key for the Zephyrs took place 10 minutes down the road in Lake Elmo. While not all of last year’s starters played club, all of them participated in club training this year, with a big Zephyrs contingent at Kokoro Volleyball. Even if the Zephyrs weren’t on the same team at Kokoro, they saw each other in the weight room, learned similar schemes.
St. Paul is among the cities that have tried sending money to very low-income residents, studying the results. When Springboard launched its project in 2021, it was one of the nation’s first guaranteed income programs aimed at artists.
“It’s not because we think artists are more deserving or more worthy than anyone else,” said Laura Zabel, Springboard’s executive director. Creative work is one form of labor that, like caregiving, “our economy doesn’t value” but that communities need — now more than ever, she said.
“I love thinking about guaranteed income as a way of honoring that we all have contributions to make to our community, and we need a little bit of time and space and breathing room to make those contributions,” Zabel said.
A similar experiment also started in 2021 in San Francisco, run by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, has ended. In 2022, the Creatives Rebuild New York program began providing some 2,400 artists in New York with $1,000 per month for 18 months. That same year, Ireland’s government began providing 2,000 artists about $350 a week, or about $18,200 a year, as part of a three-year pilot program.
Every 18 months, Springboard has extended its program’s funding. Now, it’s guaranteeing artists five years of income. The first 25 participants, who have received income since 2021, will see that money continue for two more years. Those who started receiving it 18 months ago, including 25 artists in Otter Tail County, will continue. And the 25 new recipients there will begin the program knowing they’ll get money for five years.
“So, from a research perspective, that’s very exciting — to be able to research and understand some of the difference between folks who know from the beginning the longer time horizon,” Zabel said, “and what that allows them to do in terms of planning and commitment to their community.”
DULUTH — A Duluth man who said he doesn’t remember killing his girlfriend pleaded guilty to second-degree murder without intent Tuesday in St. Louis County court — a plea deal that could land him in prison longer than sentencing guidelines would dictate.
Dale John Howard, 25, told Judge Theresa Neo that he doesn’t remember it but believes he caused the death of his girlfriend, Allisa Marie Vollan, 27, on March 22. Vollan, described on a fundraising site as a “bright young lady” with “an abundance of friends,” had a no-contact order against Howard at the time of her death. Howard could be sentenced to 20 years in prison — more than seven years longer than Minnesota’s presumptive guideline for the murder. According to the county attorney’s office, the longer sentence is legal because of the active domestic abuse no-contact order against him.
Howard’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 14.
According to court documents, officers responded to a morning call at Howard’s Central Hillside apartment and found him beneath a blanket with Vollan, who was dead. He told officers that he had hung out with Vollan late the previous night, then left to meet friends at a bar, and Vollan went to sleep in a guest room. When he tried to move her into his bedroom the next morning, she wasn’t breathing. He called his father, who was at the apartment when Duluth police arrived.
Neighbors in the upper level of the duplex told officers that, in the time before Howard would have left for the bar, they heard a woman crying and an angry male voice. They heard muffled moaning, thuds and the sound of something being dragged. They recorded it.
A preliminary autopsy by the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office found that Vollan had likely been smothered.
Earlier the same month, Howard had been arrested after neighbors saw him repeatedly slam Vollan’s head into a door. The no-contact was issued by a St. Louis County judge.
