COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – United States Attorney Marc Krickbaum said Tuesday (today), 22-year old Clay Thomas Paulson was sentenced in United States District Court in Council Bluffs, to 60 months (5-years) in prison for Possession of a Firearm while Trafficking Drugs. His sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.

On October 24, 2016, law enforcement responded to a report of a burglary at a home in Boone, Iowa, where 17 firearms had been stolen. Law enforcement were able to recover latent fingerprints from the burglary matching Paulson.

On November 7, 2016, during an investigation into a drug trafficking conspiracy, law enforcement discovered some of the stolen firearms from the burglarized home in Boone. Further investigation led to the information that the firearms had been traded by Paulson for methamphetamine.

The case was investigated by Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, Boone Police Department, Boone County Sheriff’s Office and Crawford County Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.