Federal jury convicts Silver City man on federal firearms and narcotics trafficking offenses

Category: Front Page News Front Page News
Published: 24 April 2017 24 April 2017

ALBUQUERQUE - A federal jury sitting in Las Cruces, N.M., returned a verdict on Friday afternoon (April 21, 2017) finding Trevor Lee Thayer, 46, of Silver City, N.M., guilty of violating the federal firearms and narcotics trafficking laws after a five-day trial. The jury found Thayer guilty on two firearms charges and one narcotics trafficking charge, and acquitted Thayer on three firearms charges and a narcotics trafficking charge.

The jury's verdict was announced by Acting U.S. Attorney James D. Tierney, Special Agent in Charge Will R. Glaspy of the DEA's El Paso Division, and Special Agent in Charge Thomas G. Atteberry of the Phoenix Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Thayer was charged with firearms and narcotics trafficking offenses in a five-count indictment that was filed on Feb. 13, 2013. The indictment charged Thayer with illegally possessing a short-barreled rifle and a silencer, manufacturing a silencer, manufacturing marijuana, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. On Aug. 14, 2013, Thayer was charged with the additional charge of maintaining premises for the purpose of manufacturing marijuana in a superseding indictment. The indictment was superseded a second time on Sept. 13, 2016, to include two additional charges for manufacturing silencers. Thayer was charged with committing these offenses in Grant County, N.M., in Aug. 2012.

ThayerGÇÖs trial began on April 17, 2017, and concluded on April 21, 2017, when the jury returned a guilty verdict on Counts 2, 4 and 5 of the second superseding indictment, which charged him with unlawful possession of a silencer, unlawful possession of a silencer manufacturing kit, and manufacturing and possessing approximately 30 marijuana plants. The jury acquitted Thayer on Counts 1, 3, 6 and 7.
The juryGÇÖs guilty verdict was based on evidence establishing that in Aug. 2012, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at ThayerGÇÖs residence and seized eight firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, two silencers, a silencer manufacturing toolkit, marijuana plants and marijuana plant manufacturing materials. Investigation revealed that Thayer modified a firearm and manufactured the two silencers, one metal and one plastic, and that he did not have any firearms registered to him in the national Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

The evidence at trial also established that in Aug. 2012, Thayer was manufacturing and growing marijuana plants at his residence with an expired grow license from the State of New Mexico.

At sentencing, Thayer faces a statutory maximum penalty of ten years in prison on each of the two firearms charges and five years in prison on the marijuana offense.

This case was investigated by the Las Cruces offices of the DEA and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with assistance from the New Mexico Motor Transportation Police and the New Mexico State Police. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maria Y. Armijo and Matthew Beck of the U.S. AttorneyGÇÖs Las Cruces Branch Office are prosecuting the case.

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