CRAWFORD COUNTY, Ga. — A 20-year-old college student living just 11 miles south of Macon pled guilty in federal court to building and selling 3D printed machine guns.
Jaden Michael-William Pope, 20 of Lizella, used 3D printers to build machine guns and silencers and offering them up online, federal officials said.
The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office was initially investigating Pope since Sept. 2023 for stealing weapons out of vehicles at night, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
He was arrested and admitted to stealing from cars, according to USDOJ, and when searching his phone, investigators found pictures of “personally manufactured firearms and firearm silencers as well as screenshots from a website called Yeggi, which offers 3D-printed templates of AR-15 full auto sears.”
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Officials said later on, a confidential source told them Pope was manufacturing guns and said he’d seen Pope shoot a firearm with a manufactured silencer that “significantly diminished the sound.”
Pope, who USDOJ said was a technical college student, described himself as a “machinist” and was building the guns and silencers with a 3D printer out of his bedroom.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”) was asked to investigate further. Agents from the ATF found pictures Pope posted on Facebook of manufactured firearms, including a Glock handgun with a “switch.” Switches allow semi-automatic guns to be fired at a full-automatic speed with a single trigger pull, according to USDOJ.
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Agents executed a search warrant at Pope’s home in December 2023, finding “four 3D printers, three computers, two machineguns, nine silencers and a short-barreled rifle” and “a stolen .45 caliber pistol.”
“The collaboration between ATF and the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office showcases our unwavering commitment to confronting the illegal production of firearms, especially those created through advanced methods like 3D printing,” ATF Assistant Special Agent in Charge Beau Kolodka said in a statement. “These weapons are designed to evade detection and accountability, posing an undeniable threat to public safety. Together, we are ensuring such dangers are swiftly and decisively addressed.”
In addition to the printers and weapons seized, agents also found evidence that he’d manufactured the machine guns, silencers and the short-barreled rifle. Diagrams with instructions for building the guns, and notes about production, scrap parts and failed 3D prints and residue were also recovered.
When agents analyzed the computers with the 3D printers, USDOJ said they found “g-codes,” or the codes used to 3D print the weapons Pope was making, in addition to methamphetamine hidden inside of a USB device.
“3-D printed machineguns and silencers pose a significant threat to the safety of our communities by increasing the access of illegally manufactured rapid-fire weapons to potentially dangerous individuals,” Acting U.S. Attorney Shanelle Booker said. “I applaud our local and federal law enforcement partners for shutting down this clandestine machinegun manufacturing operation.”
On Monday, Pope pled guilty to manufacturing a machine gun. USDOJ said he faces up to 10 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release as well as a $250,000 fine. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 13.
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