Federal agents fanned out across four Nashville corridors over the weekend, arresting 44 people on federal indictments tied to illegal gun and drug sales, and walking away with more than 160 firearms, illegal machine-gun conversion devices, and kilos of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and cocaine. The arrests, part of a multi-agency initiative dubbed Operation Last Call, capped months of undercover work by investigators posing as buyers of guns and narcotics.
The arrests were carried out during a targeted sweep spanning August 19 through August 23, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. As WSMV reports, the operation involved the Metro Nashville Police Department, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, which is now prosecuting the federal cases.
Four Corridors, Years of Data
Investigators say they identified their target areas through a three-year review of shots-fired calls, shooting-related crimes, and ballistic evidence, according to authorities cited by the station's report. Metro Nashville Police spokesperson John Drake said enforcement focused on the Harding Place/I-24 corridor, the Bell Road-Murfreesboro Pike area, the Napier-Sudekum neighborhood, and the Brick Church Pike-Trinity Lane corridor, per the same account.
To keep the targeting objective, data compiled from Nashville 911 shots-fired calls and NIBIN ballistic intelligence was sent to an out-of-state law enforcement agency for independent review, explicitly removing demographic and socioeconomic factors from the decision, the Justice Department said. That ballistic work runs through the department's Crime Gun Intelligence Center and NIBIN unit, housed within its Specialized Investigations Division, which is tasked with tracing recovered shell casings back to open shooting investigations, per the Metro Nashville Police Department.
What Was Seized
Undercover agents made controlled purchases of firearms and drugs during the investigation, the operation's report notes. In total, authorities seized more than 160 firearms, including assault-style rifles fitted with high-capacity magazines, along with illegal machine-gun conversion devices, more than 2 kilograms of methamphetamine, more than 1 kilogram of fentanyl, and more than half a kilogram of cocaine and crack cocaine.
The indictments include allegations involving illegal firearm sales, firearms used in drug trafficking crimes, possession of machine-gun conversion devices, possession of firearms by convicted felons, and drug distribution, the article notes. Officials said 27 of those arrested had previous felony convictions, and that a number of defendants were already on probation, parole, supervised release, or bond at the time of the alleged offenses.
A New U.S. Attorney's Flagship Case
Operation Last Call is one of the highest-profile multi-agency initiatives to date under U.S. Attorney Braden H. Boucek, who was sworn into office in December and formally invested in June as Middle Tennessee's chief federal law enforcement officer, according to the Department of Justice. Hoodline previously covered his swearing-in late last year.
The 44 defendants will now face their cases in federal court. The severity of the charges varies, but possession of an unapproved machine-gun conversion device alone — even unattached to a firearm — carries a statutory penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine under the National Firearms Act, according to Everytown Research & Policy. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed legislation in May 2025 making Tennessee the 27th state to explicitly ban Glock switches and similar conversion devices, giving state prosecutors concurrent authority alongside federal agents.
Part of a Bigger Pattern
The devices seized in Nashville reflect a broader national surge: ATF data shows nationwide recoveries of machine-gun conversion devices jumped 570% between 2017 and 2021, with more than 11,000 devices traced across the country between 2019 and 2023. Federal authorities have used similar NIBIN-driven sweeps elsewhere in Tennessee before, including an October 2023 operation in Memphis that charged 21 defendants after investigators analyzed roughly 5,000 ballistic and 911 data points.
The crackdown lands amid a sustained decline in Nashville violence. Davidson County recorded 74 criminal homicides in 2025 — a 27.5% drop from 2024 and the lowest annual total in a decade — while non-fatal gunshot victims fell 35% over the same period, according to District Attorney General Glenn R. Funk's office. Local statistics through mid-2026 showed a further 16.7% drop in overall violent crime and a 29.4% drop in homicides compared to the same period the year before, per the Tennessee Bar Association.
It remains unclear exactly how many of the 44 defendants were already being monitored under federal or state supervision programs, such as Middle Tennessee's Bond Watch initiative, and how the new federal indictments will affect any pending state charges against them — a question that mirrors an earlier Bond Watch case Hoodline reported involving a Nashville man charged with firearms and drug trafficking offenses while out on bond.
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