Florence, South Carolina --- United States Attorney Sherri A. Lydon announced today that Travis Chatman, II, 25, of Salters, was sentenced to 6 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possession of controlled substances with the intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Evidence presented to the court showed that on Aug. 30, 2018, a task force officer with ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) and officers from the Myrtle Beach SWAT Team and Myrtle Beach Street Crimes Unit executed a search warrant at a hotel room in Myrtle Beach. Both Chatman and his girlfriend were present in the room during the execution of the search warrant. During the search, officers located two firearms. One was stolen and the other had an obliterated serial number. Officers also located heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, meth, alprazolam tablets, razor blades, plastic baggies, two scales, $2,650.00 in cash, bond paperwork in Chatman’s name, and multiple cell phones.
United States District Judge Mary G. Lewis sentenced Chatman to 72 months and one day in federal prison, to be followed by a five-year term of court-ordered supervision. There is no parole in the federal system.
The case was investigated by ATF and the Myrtle Beach Police Department Street Crimes Unit and SWAT Team. It was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime. Assistant United States Attorney Lauren Hummel of the Florence office prosecuted the case. ##
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
