A Winnipeg man is facing a likely eight-year-prison sentence for his part in a weapons trafficking ring that sold 3D-printed handguns to city drug dealers.

Michael Rivers, 27, pleaded guilty last week to one count of manufacturing and trafficking firearms.

“He was essentially a cog in the wheel that made this enterprise of manufacturing and trafficking firearms successful,” Crown attorney Vanessa Gama told provincial court Judge Sidney Lerner.

Rivers remains in custody and is expected to be sentenced in December following the completion of a pre-sentence report into his background.

Ringleader Blake Ellison-Crate, 28, is serving back-to-back prison sentences totalling 22 years for his lead role in the enterprise and his mother Twyla Ellison, who helped him to continue selling guns from

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