Man sentenced to 9½ years for possession of firearms and cocaine

The Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday that a man was sentenced to prison for the illegal possession of multiple firearms and cocaine that he intended to distribute.

Steven Michael Lincoln, 35, of Ham Lake pleaded guilty on Nov. 9, 2021, to one count each of possessing a firearm as a felon, possession with intent to distribute cocaine and possession of an unregistered firearm. A federal judge sentenced him to nine and a half years in prison.

On Sept. 13, 2019, court documents state Lincoln was stopped by St. Paul police officers who then noticed a large bag of marijuana in the front passenger seat of a vehicle he was driving. Officers then searched the vehicle and recovered a loaded Ruger .380-caliber pistol, a loaded Kimber .45-caliber pistol, multiple sandwich bags of prepackaged marijuana, a digital scale, $936 in cash and baggies of cocaine with a total weight of 3.5 grams.

The news release detailed another incident on Jan. 4, 2020, where St. Paul police found Lincoln asleep in the seat of a pickup truck parked in an alleyway. Police then recovered a loaded Brugger and Thomet TP9 9mm firearm, a bulletproof vest and several firearm magazines along with a .40 caliber barrel for a Glock 23 from inside the truck.

Lincoln is prohibited from owning firearms because of his previous felony convictions.