A 19-year-old D.C. man, Naseer Green, has been sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison for drug possession with the intent to distribute, along with wielding a Glock handgun converted into a machine gun. On Sept. 4, Green entered a guilty plea to charges including possession with the intent to distribute substances like fentanyl and oxycodone and to possessing a firearm in connection with a drug trafficking crime; Judge Timothy J. Kelly subsequently handed down a 71-month prison term followed by three years of supervised release, as reported by the U.S. Department of Justice.
During an early morning patrol on March 16 in Logan Circle, Metropolitan Police Department officers noticed a sedan parked unlawfully by a fire hydrant sparking an approach leading to the revelation of a handgun and triggering the arrest of its four occupants, one of whom was Green, found with a stolen Glock Model 19 featuring a "switch" to facilitate automatic fire, and a mix of narcotics subsequently identified as fentanyl and oxycodone. Alongside Green, two other men were armed, but their trials, involving Wesley Hilliard and Sequan Collier, remain on the court's docket, awaiting their day in the judicial system.
With the ongoing crackdown by federal and local law enforcement agencies on illegal firearms and the trafficking of narcotics, cases like Green's cast a stark light on the intertwined nature of gun violence and the drug trade in urban centers like D.C. Details shared by officials revealed that from Green, officers confiscated not just the modified firearm, but also an assortment of pills and a small sum of cash, all indicators of drug-peddling activity. This particular bust was part of a wider effort by the ATF and the MPD to target such outlawed activities, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kate M. Naseef and Matthew W. Kinskey spearheading the prosecution, according to the same press release.
The collaborative efforts of the ATF's Washington Field Division and MPD, under the respective leadership of Special Agent in Charge Anthony Spotswood and Chief Pamela A. Smith, underscore the continual vigil against the illegal narcotics distribution network and the violent potential carried by illegally modified firearms across the nation's capital.
