Bill McCleery and Justin L. Mack

The Indianapolis Star

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Indiana man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on federal firearms charges stemming from a 2011 raid in which police found about 175 firearms and more than 59,000 rounds of ammunition, U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett announced Tuesday.

Jackie Richardson, 49, Coatsville, was sentenced April 17 on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of unlawfully possessing a machine gun, according to a release from Hogsett's office.

Richardson was arrested Dec. 17, 2011, by Hendricks County sheriff's deputies responding to a 911 call about domestic violence at his home, according to the release. Deputies found evidence of an illegal firearms manufacturing operation and contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the release said.

"Never in the 3 1/2 years that I have served as the United States attorney have we prosecuted a felony possession case more egregious and dangerous than this," Hogsett said in a statement.

Hogsett said Richardson had no legal right to possess firearms or ammunition because of prior felony convictions for battery, theft, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and felony intimidation stemming from multiple incidents dating at least to the late 1990s. It was unclear Tuesday what Richardson did with the weapons he made.

Thirty-five of the guns possessed by Richardson were fully automatic machine guns, authorities said. Under U.S. law, a person may own a fully automatic machine gun with the proper permit, said Patrick Hand, an ATF spokesman in Indianapolis. Richardson's machine guns were not registered, Hand said.

"As long as it has been properly registered as a machine gun with the ATF prior to May 1986, you may own such a gun," Hand said. "The only manufacturing that currently takes place is for military or law enforcement."

Richardson faces three years of supervised release after his term.

Authorities do not often come across illegal gun manufacturing operations. "It's not something we see every day, but it's out there," Hand said.

USA TODAY contributed to this story.