MANKATO — Local investigators didn’t find the drugs they were looking for in May 2009, but the machine guns they did find resulted in a one-year federal prison sentence for a 61-year-old Rapidan man Thursday.

Ronald Willis Strand pleaded guilty to one federal count of unlawful possession of a machine gun in April. He was facing up to 10 years in prison, but his attorney, Andrea George, asked United States District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank to consider a sentence of three years probation. Federal prosecutors had requested a 30-month prison sentence and three years probation.

Strand had been arrested by Minnesota River Valley Drug and Gang Task Force agents after allegedly trading a bail bond with an informant for prescription drugs and a television. While searching Strand’s house for drugs on May 14, investigators found three machine guns and other weapons. The Bloomington Bomb Squad also was called to the house to help remove items that could be used to make explosives.

Drug charges had been filed in Blue Earth County, but those charges were dismissed after Strand was indicted by a federal grand jury in October. He was released on his own recognizance after making his first appearance in federal court on Oct. 20.

Using dozens of letters of support sent by people who know Strand, George argued that Strand deserved a light sentence, court records said. She also cited his involvement with Wellcome Manor, a halfway house for chemically dependent mothers and their children; his work as a foster parent; and the fact that he founded and organized the Rapidan Heritage Society.

George also pointed out that Strand had a license to shoot fireworks, which explained the explosive materials that were removed from his house by the bomb squad.

“Ron has always had guns,” she said in a court filing requesting probation. “He was a gun safety instructor and was licensed to possess and shoot off firearms. He was the Fourth of July guy around the Mankato area.

“What is so frustrating is he could have easily applied for a permit to have these guns, but failed to get around to it. Thus, he violated the law by unlawfully possessing guns that were readily adaptable, or were already adapted to machine guns.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Otteson focused on the fact that Strand was a former police officer and bail bondsman. Strand was an officer with the Mankato Police Department from July 1971 to July 1973, and was working as a bondsman when he was arrested in May 2009.

“Thus, the illegal possession of these weapons was not an act of a desperate and disadvantaged individual, but rather of a person who unquestionably knew better, knew of the wrongfullness of his conduct, and yet chose to engage in his criminal act nonetheless,” Otteson said in his written request for a 30-month prison sentence.

“The danger posed by the manufacture of illegal machine guns, to law enforcement as well as the general public, cannot be overstated. These were military grade weapons. Had they ended up in the hands of a violent criminal, the results could have been deadly.”