One machinegun, 14 grams of cocaine, and a mandatory 30 years

A Fairbanks man was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in federal prison for carrying a machinegun during a drug trafficking crime.

Mason Lanon, 23, was linked to more than 70 firearms in a single year and became, investigators concluded, the place local gangs went to buy guns. He came to federal attention through routine tracing. Fairbanks police ran the serial numbers on firearms recovered at multiple crime scenes in early 2025, and several came back to him. ATF then pulled his purchase history and found he had bought 20 guns from licensed dealers between September 2024 and March 2025. Adding records from Fairbanks-area dealers, the total across one year exceeded 70. Five of the guns he bought turned up at local crime scenes.

Agents bought from him twice. In May 2025 they purchased a single firearm. In August they bought another with a machinegun conversion device installed, along with more than 14 grams of cocaine. Lanon was carrying a second converted gun at the time.

A conversion device turns a semiautomatic pistol into one that fires continuously with a single trigger pull. Legally that makes the gun a machinegun.

Investigators concluded Lanon led a local gang called the Soul Reaper Gang and had built a reputation as the source other Fairbanks gangs used for firearms and some drugs.

A grand jury indicted him in November on three counts. In June he pleaded guilty to one: carrying a machinegun in relation to a drug trafficking crime. That count carries a mandatory minimum of 30 years, which is what he received.

His dealing "directly fueled violence and crimes throughout the Fairbanks community," U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman said. ATF Seattle Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Blais said he "cannot overstate the dangerousness of machinegun conversion devices."

The ATF Anchorage Field Office, Alaska State Troopers and Fairbanks Police Department investigated, with help from the DEA. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carly Vosacek prosecuted.