Waterloo Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Making Machineguns

A Northeast Iowa man who turned firearms into fully automatic machineguns in his home has been sentenced to more than one year in federal prison.

 Information from sentencing showed that 35-year-old Nicholas Wilson of Waterloo machined three semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic machineguns. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives began investigating Wilson’s firearm purchases after several guns that he purchased were recovered in connection with criminal investigations.  

ATF agents searched Wilson’s house in July 2025 and located three machineguns and a machinegun conversion device, a drop-in auto sear.  Wilson lied to law enforcement agents by indicating that he did not have any National Firearms Act firearms, which would include machineguns, in his house. 

 In January, Wilson pleaded guilty to one count of possession of machineguns. On August 20th, he was sentenced by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams to twelve months and one day of federal prison and fined $5,000.  Wilson must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after prison.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Wilson was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the United States Marshal on September 21st.

 The case was investigated by a Federal Task Force composed of the Waterloo Police Department, FBI, and ATF, with assistance from the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office and the Cedar Falls Police Department.