A 22-year-old man from St. Louis has admitted to possession of drugs and a machine gun following his arrest after a police chase. Mario Mitchell entered a guilty plea in the U.S. District Court in St. Louis for possessing fentanyl and cocaine base with the intent to distribute.
The incident took place on October 16, 2023, when officers from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department observed a silver Nissan Sentra running a stop sign at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and East Lee Avenue in the Penrose neighborhood. The officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but Mitchell fled, prompting a pursuit. The chase ended after officers deployed spike strips, disabling the Sentra.
Mitchell exited the vehicle and fled on foot, discarding a Glock 10mm fully automatic pistol with an extended magazine. Upon arrest, officers found him in possession of a bag containing 40 fentanyl capsules and another bag containing 2.97 grams of cocaine base. As described in his plea agreement, the pistol had been modified with a conversion device, categorized as a machine gun under federal law.
Mario Mitchell is scheduled for sentencing on July 10. He faces a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison for each charge, a fine of $250,000, or a combination of both.
The investigation was conducted by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with the case being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Lake.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a national initiative aimed at reducing violent crime and gun violence through collaboration between law enforcement agencies and communities. The Department launched an enhanced violent crime reduction strategy on May 26, 2021, focused on community trust, support for violence prevention organizations, strategic enforcement priorities, and result measurement.
