A Lansing man, identified as 22-year-old Jaquan Foreman, has been sentenced to over three years in federal prison followed by two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to selling machine-gun conversion devices to local gang members. These devices, commonly referred to as "switches," "buttons," or "auto-sears," can quickly transform semi-automatic firearms into machine guns capable of firing hundreds of rounds within minutes. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan announced the sentencing, emphasizing the gravity of the offense in relation to community violence. As U.S. Attorney Mark Totten put in a statement obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office, "With this case I am sending a very clear message: if you possess a machinegun conversion device and are driving violence in your community, you are a target for federal prosecution."
The conviction of Foreman is part of a broader crackdown on violent crime under the Project Safe Neighborhoods program, a collaborative effort including federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, as well as tribal forces. During the course of the investigation, electronic evidence was discovered that indicated Foreman's involvement in distributing these conversion devices. According to details from a news release, a subsequent search of his home turned up ammunition, gun parts, a pistol, and a conversion device. Text messages reviewed from the cell phones of other federal defendants further implicated him in the scheme to provide gang members with these illegal modifications.
Authorities have highlighted the urgent need to address gun violence in Lansing, with recent sentences marking a stern response to such infractions. "Anyone who contributes to the gun violence in the city of Lansing will be targeted with all the resources available to the Lansing Police Department," Lansing Police Chief Rob Backus stated in a news release shared by the Lansing State Journal. This multi-agency initiative also includes partners from the violent crimes initiative, dedicated to both prevention and prosecution of violent crimes linked with firearms.
Jaquan Foreman's case is illustrative of a troubling trend where street-level interventions escalate quickly into federal cases due to the nature of the weapons involved. Another individual, Valentino Wallace, was also mentioned to have been supplied with an MCD by Foreman, and he now awaits his own sentencing after a federal jury conviction in August for possessing a machine gun, as per information from a Lansing State Journal report.
