MADISON — A Monticello man faces a charge of illegally possessing ammunition as a convicted felon after a federal grand jury in Madison indicted him Wednesday, March 4.
Justin W. Wenger, 37, allegedly possessed .223 caliber ammunition on Jan. 16. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in federal prison.
The U.S. Justice Department news release on the indictment did not provide further details on the offense, only that the investigation into Wenger was a collaboration between the Monroe and Monticello Police Departments, Green County Sheriff’s Office and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The collaboration is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a federal program to reduce violent crime by addressing gun crime, “especially felons illegally possessing firearms and ammunition, and violent crimes and drug crimes that involve the use of firearms.”
Monticello Chief of Police Szvon Conway said the investigation into Wenger started out locally but that at a certain point federal investigators “took over everything.”
Conway said Wenger was taken into custody the same day he was indicted.
Related local charges against Wenger are forthcoming, said Green County District Attorney Craig Nolen. Nolen has the Monticello Police Department reports on the case and is awaiting reports from other involved law enforcement agencies.
Wenger has an extensive criminal record going back to 2006 in Green County.
In 2014, he was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring with two others to burglarize a New Glarus home and steal an 800-pound gun safe and over $150,000 in cash.
His co-conspirators, William Wilke and Ryan Coyle, were also convicted and sentenced in connection to the burglary.
According to the criminal complaint, Wenger and Wilke entered a home in the 600 block of 14th Avenue and carried off a firearms safe worth $650. Within the safe were 12 firearms, brass knuckles, a taser, 3,000 rounds of ammo and bundles of cash totaling about $153,000.
As Wenger got into the getaway vehicle, he vomited and told the driver, Coyle, that he would kill him if he ever told anyone about the burglary.
Afterward, the three men divided the cash and Wenger took most of the guns and sold them on the street. In the months before their arrests, they had large quantities of stolen cash at their disposal, which Wilke described as “life-changing.” Wenger purchased a Ford Mustang and a Pontiac Grand Prix using the stolen cash. Coyle told an informant he was burning $100 bills that had any marking that might link him to the burglary.