A Bigfork man convicted of a federal firearms charge after being caught with several guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition has been sentenced to prison.

Mark Lawrence Wilson pleaded guilty in November to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced Feb. 20 during U.S. District Court proceedings in Missoula to six months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Wilson, a marijuana and cocaine user, was found with 12 firearms and more than 5,200 rounds of ammunition after his car and home were searched in the climax of a four-month investigation into Wilson’s use and distribution of cocaine.

A pair of handguns and a shotgun were found in Wilson’s vehicle that he was driving at the time of his arrest. One of the handguns was the same one shown during a Nov. 2, 2012, cocaine sale.

The ammunition, for all varieties and calibers of firearms, was at his home.

The investigation that led to Wilson’s arrest was a cooperative effort of Homeland Security Investigations, the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration Laboratory, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force.