A 47-year-old man found with homemade explosives and hundreds of rounds of high-powered ammunition after a traffic stop in Oak Park Heights and who prosecutors say identifies as a “sovereign citizen” was sentenced Wednesday to three years and four months in federal prison.
Wayne Robert Lund, of Stillwater, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis in September to possessing unregistered firearms, one of four charges in a December 2024 indictment. Charges of being a felon in possession of explosives, firearms and ammunition were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
Lund, after his November 2024 arrest, told police the “bomb items were actually used for his rocket hobby and is trying to get his rocket to different heights,” according to a criminal complaint filed in Washington County District Court, where he was initially charged in connection with the case.
According to state and federal court documents, Lund was pulled over on Minnesota 36 shortly after 2 a.m. Nov. 2, 2024, for driving with expired plates and a revoked license. His SUV was also uninsured, and a search of his car before it was towed turned up seven CO2 canisters with wicks and an eight-inch PVC pipe bomb in the trunk.
Officers called the St. Paul Bomb Squad, which identified the CO2 cartridges from photos as suspected “cricket” bombs, an informal term used by law enforcement to describe small, destructive devices built by packing explosives into a CO2 cartridge and adding a fuse.
Wayne Robert Lund (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)
Homes and businesses in the immediate area of the impound lot were evacuated.
Other officers responded to a hotel room in Stillwater that Lund had been renting and evacuated the area around it. They recovered another cricket bomb, more than a hundred empty CO2 cartridges, a jug with explosive black powder, a three-ring binder entitled “List of Pyro Chemicals and Terms,” and documents related to “American Nationals and the Minnesota State Assembly (i.e., sovereign citizen movement),” court documents say.
A locked personal safe in the hotel room contained 804 rounds of ammunition, seven high-capacity rifle magazines filled with nearly 200 rounds of high-velocity .223-caliber ammunition, an airsoft grenade and a small amount of meth.
FBI agents executed a search warrant on a chest freezer belonging to Lund on property in Houlton, Wis., and found another cricket bomb, empty CO2 metal cartridges, black powder precursors and a gallon-sized milk jug half-filled with explosive powder.
In an interview with authorities, Lund admitted to building the cricket bombs in Wisconsin by filling them with one to two grams of explosive material, which he made, and inserting a wick into them, but he said they were rocket engines. He also said he has an interest in explosives as a hobby.
According to FBI bomb technicians, however, the cricket bombs were “destructive devices” that when ignited would “combust and possibly emit shrapnel from the exploding cartridge casing,” the indictment said.
Sentencing
Lund, whose criminal history includes a 2014 threats of violence conviction, faced a guideline sentence between 46 and 57 months in prison at Wednesday’s sentencing.
Lund’s attorney Daniel Gerdts said in a defense sentencing memo that Lund disputes the claim he’s a sovereign citizen, who believe they are not subject to federal, state or local laws.
“He has admitted that his conduct violated the valid laws of this land, and he has accepted responsibility for it,” Gerdts wrote. “In other words, the ‘sovereign citizen’ label does not apply to Mr. Lund — as he has patiently tried to explain to everyone who has tried to pigeon-hole him in that camp.”
Related Articles
Two men get life in prison for Coon Rapids fake-UPS triple murder
Apple Valley man spared prison in Mounds View shooting case
4-year prison term for Minneapolis man who shot at vehicles during separate St. Paul road rage incidents
State, MSP mayors allege ‘federal invasion’ in lawsuit against Trump administration
U.S. Bank Center mortgage acquired by St. Paul Downtown Development Corporation
Gerdts added that Lund “is a proud, honorably discharged, military veteran” who has “interacted respectfully with all of the investigators, jailors and court personnel during the pendency of this case.”
Assistant U.S. District Attorney Benjamin Bejar asked U.S. District Judge Michael Davis to hand down the maximum sentence.
“Despite the defendant’s objection to the (presentence report) reference of him as an American National Assembly member endorsing sovereign citizen ideology, the evidence gathered in this case and the defendant’s own words underscore the defendant’s belief and reliance on such ideology,” Bejar wrote in the prosecution’s sentencing memo.
Lund will be on supervised release for two years following his 40-month prison term.
Leave a Reply