Feds: Anoka man with anti-government beliefs charged with possession of machine gun, meth

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
·2 min read
1

About two years ago, meth dealer Darrian Mitchell Nguyen showed a buyer a collection of shotguns, handguns, rifles, pipe bombs and “last stand bullets” he had stashed at his Anoka home, according to federal prosecutors.

The FBI began investigating Nguyen in April after the buyer was arrested for possession of meth in 2020 and became a paid informant. He told agents that 50-year-old 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 charges allege; they also note they didn’t have information he had joined a militia group.

According to documents filed this week in U.S. District Court:

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.

Nguyen told the informant he stored “last stand bullets” — hollow-point AR 15 bullets capped with mercury — in case he was backed into a corner by law enforcement.

At the FBI’s request, the informant met with Nguyen on July 13 to settle a debt from 2020; instead he 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.

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 an Aug. 23 meeting at Nguyen’s home, he 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.

On Tuesday, the informant met Nguyen at his home for the gun deal and law enforcement took him into custody. Multiple firearms were found in a hidden room, including a short-barreled shotgun and rifle equipped with a 37 mm grenade launcher, as well as suppressors.

Nguyen is charged with possession of a machine gun, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession of a firearm not registered in the ATF’s National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

He made an initial court appearance Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright in St. Paul and was ordered to remain in custody pending a detention hearing set for Friday. An attorney for Nguyen couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Minnesota court records show Nguyen does not have a criminal history, other than misdemeanor driving offenses.

Related Articles