[Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include results of the airman’s recent court-martial.]
A former master sergeant assigned to Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., faces the prospect of life in prison after pleading guilty to federal gun and drug trafficking charges, the Justice Department said this week.
Michael Reimers, 41, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of distributing a controlled substance and one count of engaging in the business of selling firearms without a license, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada.
A military judge also found Reimers guilty in a general court-martial on March 11, a Nellis spokesperson said Thursday. His sentence: 84 months of confinement, a six-grade demotion from master sergeant to airman basic, and a dishonorable discharge.
Reimers was arrested in September 2019 after spending about two months offering to sell “numerous firearms to various buyers, including an AK-47, a .26 caliber handgun, and a 12-gauge shotgun,” DOJ said. “In addition, on July 23, 2019, Reimers sold methamphetamine to an individual for $800.”
Reimers, who was not a licensed firearms dealer, allegedly sold the shotgun to someone living in the U.S. illegally, and had trafficked cocaine on top of more than 50 grams of meth, the federal government said.
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DOJ will move to dismiss two remaining charges at the sentencing hearing, scheduled for July 13, Trisha Young at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nevada told Air Force Times Thursday. Reimers faced a second count of distributing a controlled substance and one count of selling a firearm to a prohibited person.
Reimers could serve a maximum sentence of life in prison, a lifetime of supervised release, and a $10.3 million fine, according to DOJ. He was placed in custody pending the hearing, Young said.
The Nellis spokesperson said Thursday they were still working to confirm Reimers’ whereabouts.
Reimers joined the Air Force in 2000 and had attained the rank of master sergeant at the time of his arrest, Air Force Times previously reported. In 2019, the Air Force Personnel Center said he worked in the spectrum operations field and was a transmissions section chief in Nellis’s 99th Communications Squadron.
The Drug Enforcement Administration led the investigation in partnership with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Henderson Police Department, and Nellis law enforcement.
Rachel Cohen is the editor of Air Force Times. She joined the publication as its senior reporter in March 2021. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Frederick News-Post (Md.), Air and Space Forces Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy and elsewhere.
