A blue backpack, a clear plastic food container and a loaded handgun turned a West Baltimore drug investigation into a seven-year federal sentence. Keith Cook, 32, was convicted after police said they watched suspected marijuana transactions unfold outside a mini mart and then found drugs, cash and ammunition on him.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Cook to seven years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office. Federal authorities said Cook is also a convicted felon barred from possessing firearms and ammunition.
The case dates to January 27, 2023, when a Baltimore police officer using a CitiWatch camera observed Cook in West Baltimore, as Fox45 News reports. Authorities said Cook removed a Tupperware container from a blue backpack, pulled out suspected marijuana and handed it to two different men minutes apart.
When officers arrived, they found a firearm with an extended magazine loaded with 26 rounds of 9-millimeter ammunition, along with 14 alprazolam pills, 88 oxycodone pills, a buprenorphine strip, $906 in cash and two phones, according to the federal release. The backpack reportedly held more suspected marijuana, a heroin-and-fentanyl mixture, a digital scale and drug-packaging materials; another group of gelcaps contained tan powder that did not test positive as a controlled substance.
Why The Gun Count Carried Its Own Federal Weight
Cook's sentence was for possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, a federal offense covered by 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). The law allows an additional prison term when someone possesses a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, making the gun charge a separate and especially serious part of the federal case.
