Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

HAMMOND- Levar Tyms, 20 years old, of Country Club Hills, Illinois, was sentenced by United States District Court Senior Judge James T. Moody after pleading guilty to possessing an unregistered machinegun, announced United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.

Tyms was sentenced to 24 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release.

According to documents in the case, on March 9, 2022, law enforcement attempted to stop a stolen vehicle driven by Tyms in Gary, Indiana. Tyms fled from officers at a high rate of speed and crashed the vehicle. From the vehicle, officers recovered a loaded semi-automatic pistol with an extended magazine. The firearm also contained a conversion device known as a “Glock Switch” which converted the semi-automatic firearm to a fully automatic weapon. The machinegun was not registered to Tyms in the National Firearm Registration and Transfer record, making his possession of it illegal.

This case is the result of the investigative efforts of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Indiana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Task Force and the Gary Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joel L. Mathur and Kevin F. Wolff.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.