Bags of Marijuana Packaged for Sale Found in Same Car as Gun
A man who unlawfully possessed a loaded handgun and ammunition was sentenced on March 19, 2018, to nearly a year in federal prison.
Kamechie Coffer, age 20, originally from Mississippi but now residing in Waterloo, Iowa, received the prison term after a guilty plea to one count of being a drug user in possession of ammunition. Information from the sentencing hearing showed that Coffer possessed a loaded handgun and multiple rounds of ammunition while riding in a car in Waterloo on July 16, 2017. Waterloo police stopped the car and then found the loaded handgun and individually packaged bags of marijuana. Coffer was arrested. While he was being transported to jail, he removed multiple bullets from his pockets and dropped them in the police car. While on release pending trial, Coffer violated his conditions of release by possessing a second gun.
Coffer was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand. Coffer was sentenced to ten months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a two-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. He is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Morfitt and investigated by a Federal Task Force composed of the Waterloo Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms assisted by the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office and Cedar Falls Police Department.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program that has been historically successful in bringing together all levels of law enforcement to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has made turning the tide of rising violent crime in America a top priority. In October 2017, as part of a series of actions to address this crime trend, Attorney General Sessions announced the reinvigoration of PSN and directed all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to develop a district crime reduction strategy that incorporates the lessons learned since PSN launched in 2001.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 17-CR-2075.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
