CHARLESTON, W.Va. - An Akron man pleaded guilty today to a federal drug crime and a federal gun crime, announced United States Attorney Carol Casto. Lonnie Brown, 46, entered his guilty plea to distribution of fentanyl. In a separate proceeding, Brown also pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
On Sept. 26, 2016, officers with the Charleston Police Department conducted a traffic stop on a Honda Accord in Charleston. Brown fled the vehicle on foot. During a search of the vehicle, officers located a Glock, Model 27,.40 caliber semi-automatic pistol in the floorboard where Brown had been sitting. Brown was prohibited from possessing any firearm under federal law because of a 2015 felony conviction in Montgomery County, Ohio, for possession of heroin.
On Feb. 15, 2017, agents with the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team used a confidential informant to make a controlled drug buy from Brown. The drug deal occurred at 602 Randolph Street in Charleston, and the substance recovered by law enforcement from the confidential informant tested positive for fentanyl. As part of the plea agreement, Brown admitted to all the drug trafficking activity charged in the indictment, including that he distributed heroin and fentanyl in Charleston on three other occasions in 2016 and 2017.
Brown faces up to 20 years in federal prison for the drug charge and up to 10 years in federal prison for the gun charge when he is sentenced on Jan. 11, 2018.
The Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team, the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department’s STOP Team, the Charleston Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted the investigations. Assistant United States Attorney Stephanie S. Taylor is handling the prosecution. The plea hearings were held before United States District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin.
The drug prosecution is part of an ongoing effort led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia to combat the illicit sale and misuse of prescription drugs and heroin. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, joined by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is committed to aggressively pursuing and shutting down pill trafficking, eliminating open air drug markets, and curtailing the spread of opiate painkillers and heroin in communities across the Southern District. The gun case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods. Project Safe Neighborhoods is a nationwide commitment to reduce gun crime in the United States by networking with existing local programs targeting gun crime.
* Follow us on Twitter: SDWVNews
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
