Timothy John Watson, a 31 year old man from Raston, West Virginia, accused of selling conversion kits that turn rifles fully-automatic to far-right white supremacist groups, the Associated Press reports.
Watson wasn’t convicted for selling the conversion kits, however. He received his jail sentence as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors for possessing an illegal silencer. Watson had previously faced three other charges relating to manufacturing and selling kits that would convert AR-15-style assault rifles to fully-automatic.
Arrested in November 2020, Watson was using a 3D printer to manufacture some of the parts for the conversion kits. Prosecutors allege he sold hundreds of kits to up to 800 people, many of them affiliated with the Boogaloo movement, which is preparing to start a civil war in the United States.
Watson allegedly sold a kit to Steven Carrillo, an Air Force technical sergeant convicted of shooting and injuring several others in California in May 2020. Carrillo was also linked to Boogaloo members who participated in violence in Minneapolis after the murder of George Floyd.