BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — Nearly a dozen west Michigan men were charged with federal drug and weapons offenses on Thursday.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten says it’s the result of an investigation that lasted more than a year.
Eight of the suspects are from Benton Harbor and three are from Grand Rapids.
All but one of the men have been arrested.
Police are still looking for 23-year-old Eric Williams of Grand Rapids. He’s believed to be either in Grand Rapids or Benton Harbor.
Of the eleven men charged, seven are accused of trafficking firearm conversion devices called “switches.”
According to court documents, switches can quickly turn a semi-automatic pistol into a machine gun.
“They pose an emergent threat to our communities, to our children, to our law enforcement officers, and to anyone who stands in the path of their indiscriminate spray,” said Totten.
Investigators describe switches as a three-part piece that can be installed with little technical knowledge.
People substitute it for a gun’s slide cover plate.
As a result, when someone pulls its trigger, the gun will fire until someone releases the trigger, or the magazine is emptied.
A Glock with a switch can shoot over 1,000 rounds per minute.
“When that individual has a weapon converted with an auto sear or a Glock switch, he has the ability to fire… creating far more danger because those bullets have no names,” said Craig Kailimai, assistant special agent in charge for the Detroit FBI. “They will go everywhere.”
Nationally, law enforcement officials say they began to see the use of switches within the last three years.
Locally, it’s not as widespread, noting this is one of the first cases in West Michigan to go after the device, but said it’s an important step given how much destruction switches can cause.
Kailimai said it’s “difficult” to prevent switches from spreading into communities.
He noted that people often purchase them from places overseas, like China, or 3-D print them.
However, he and Totten called on local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to work together and address the issue.
“When you find a pipeline that is putting out those types of devices, you never really know how many they’ve already put out or where it’s already impacting or where it’s gone,” said Kailimai. “The moment you shut that down [though], you can almost be rest assured that you’ve prevented crime in at least one community that’s seen them.”
Anyone with information on Williams’ whereabouts is asked to call the U.S. Marshals Service at (616) 456-2438.
MSP and Totten held a news conference on the investigation Thursday.
Watch the news conference here:
The DOJ names the following suspects and the crimes they were charged with:
- Evorion Anderson, 20: distribution of meth, conspiracy to distribute meth
- Jayvon Anthony, 21: possession or transfer of a machine gun, conspiracy to possess or transfer a machine gun, felon in possession of a firearm
- Earl Austin IV, 21: distribution of meth, conspiracy to distribute meth, possession or transfer of a machine gun, conspiracy to possess or transfer a machine gun, felon in possession of a firearm
- Quincy Bowman, 25: conspiracy to possess or transfer a machine gun
- Omarion Branch, 19: felon in possession of a firearm
- Torez Burnett, 20: conspiracy to possess or transfer a machine gun
- Nicholas Hallo, 32: felon in possession of a firearm
- Demetrius Seuell, 22: possession or transfer of a machine gun, conspiracy to possess or transfer a machine gun
- Timothy Thomas, 25: felon in possession of a firearm and ammo
- Armando Villanueva, 22: conspiracy to possess or transfer a machine gun
- Eric Williams, 23: conspiracy to possess or transfer a machine gun
The Department of Justice (DOJ) credits the following agencies for their involvement in the FBI-led investigation: MSP, the ATF, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Benton Harbor Department of Public Safety, the Benton Township Police Department, the Berrien County Sheriff’s Office, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians Tribal Police, the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC), and the United States Postal Inspection Service.
