Pequot Lakes man pleads guilty to possessing firearms, ammunition, and methamphetamine

Courtesy of: Brainerd Police Department
Courtesy of: Brainerd Police Department

(St. Paul, MN) -- A Pequot Lakes man has pleaded guilty to illegally possessing firearms, ammunition, and over 400 grams of methamphetamine.

Court documents say, in the spring of 2019, 35-year-old Nicholas Ronald Wynn was purchasing firearms parts, accessories, and tactical gear. The same documents say Wynn also purchased chemicals and lab equipment used to make narcotics, explosives and firearms. 

Court documents say in May of 2019, law enforcement agents executed a search warrant of Wynn's home and discovered several tools and parts designed for building semiautomatic rifles and handguns; firearms accessories, multiple high-capacity magazines; several boxes of ammunition; and tactical gear, including a bullet-proof vest, ballistic plates, a bullet-proof helmet, and a bullet-proof facemask. In the same search, the documents allege agents found large amounts of methamphetamine and cocaine, packaging materials for selling drugs, recipes and chemicals for manufacturing methamphetamine, and more than 400 grams of methamphetamine.

Court documents say Wynn was taken into custody, and admitted to owning firearms and ammunition in an off-site storage unit in Brainerd. Agents searched the unit and found five firearms, including semiautomatic handguns and an assault rifle, and multiple boxes and magazines of ammunition.

Court documents say agents also searched Wynn's rental property in Brainerd, occupied by renters. They advised the agents that Wynn accessed a garage on the property multiple times a week, typically in the middle of the night. It was a garage the renters did not have access to. Agents searched the garage and recovered two lengths of PVC pipe, capped on each end "In the manner used to make pipe bombs."

Wynn, who was scheduled to go to trial on December 1, 2021, pleaded guilty earlier today to one count of possessing a firearm as a felon, one count of possessing ammunition as a felon, and one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.