Stash of Machine Guns Leads to Federal Indictment

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A western Minnesota man faces federal charges that he illegally possessed 10 machine guns as well as unregistered pipe bombs and silencers.

A federal grand jury indicted Chad Lee Monson, 46, of Willmar on numerous firearms violations last week. Monson returns to U.S. District Court for a detention hearing and arraignment Friday.

The new charges stem from an arsenal law enforcement officers allegedly found when they searched his rural Kandiyohi County property, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

According to the federal indictment, two of the machine guns had "obliterated" serial numbers. The indictment also alleges Monson possessed three pipe bombs and three silencers, all unregistered.

Monson was among five people arrested during a Jan. 30 raid of his home by drug and gang task force agents.

When police searched Monson's property, they found drugs, weapons and ammunition, according to the state criminal complaint. Charging documents said that before the search, Monson allegedly discussed targeting a judge, a prosecutor and another attorney with explosives. The identities of the alleged targets were not disclosed in the complaint.

Monson also is awaiting trial on state criminal charges. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges. A pretrial hearing on the state complaint also is scheduled Friday, but the state case probably will be taken off the trial calendar because of the federal indictment, Kandiyohi County Attorney Shane Baker said in an email.

Defense attorney Daniel Mohs declined comment to the newspaper until after the pending detention hearing.