Four convicted felons have been sentenced to federal prison for selling illegal firearms and fentanyl from the parking lot of a shuttered Memphis hotel, with one man facing 15 years behind bars under a law that strips away any chance of parole. The sentences, handed down in federal court this week, cap a case that began with an ATF tip and stretched across a property already notorious for violent crime.
Chief U.S. District Judge Sheryl H. Lipman presided over the sentencings for all four men, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Fred Buford, a 33-year-old Memphis resident, received the steepest sentence of the group — 180 months, or 15 years, in prison — after the court determined he qualified as an Armed Career Criminal under federal law. That designation, triggered by three prior violent felony convictions including two aggravated burglaries, an auto burglary and an attempted aggravated robbery, carries a mandatory minimum sentence with no possibility of parole, as reported by Action News 5. Buford will also serve three years of supervised release once he is out.
Buford pleaded guilty on July 30 to being a felon in possession of a firearm. His three co-defendants entered guilty pleas earlier in the year and received lighter — but still substantial — sentences. Larry Smith, a 39-year-old Houston resident known as “Killa,” pleaded guilty on February 20 to being a felon in possession of firearms and was sentenced on June 16 to 76 months in prison, plus three years of supervised release. Frederick Munn, 38, of Memphis, pleaded guilty on February 17 and was sentenced on May 29 to 94 months. Courtney Hibler, a 41-year-old Memphis resident, pleaded guilty on February 12 to distributing fentanyl and being a felon in possession of a firearm, and received 18 months in prison on May 28.
An Undercover Sting Rooted in a Shuttered Hotel
The case traces back to the former Economy Hotel near the 3000 block of Lamar Avenue, a property Memphis Police shut down in November 2024 following a public nuisance complaint tied to homicides, drug sales and gang activity, per the Justice Department. Hoodline previously reported on that hotel’s closure, which came after Memphis Police Department records showed officers had responded to 996 calls for service and filed 172 offense reports at the property over a two-year span, according to WATN-TV. That initial raid by the department’s Organized Crime Unit led to 15 arrests and the seizure of illegal handguns along with crack cocaine, powder cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl and ecstasy, the station reported. The temporary injunction closing the hotel was granted in Shelby County Criminal Court Division 14 after the Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office filed a public nuisance petition.
But the hotel’s closure didn’t stop the criminal activity happening in its parking lot. Between July and August 2025, Smith facilitated 11 illegal gun sales and a fentanyl sale directly to undercover federal agents, following an initial ATF tip received in June 2025, per the Justice Department. Buford, Hibler and Munn supplied the firearms for the sales Smith arranged, and the group sold weapons — including at least one stolen gun — from the former hotel’s parking lot. The four were indicted last September on firearms and fentanyl distribution charges.
A Federal Operation Targeting High-Crime Lodging
The prosecution grew out of Operation Back to Business, a multi-agency initiative led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives aimed at dismantling illegal firearm trafficking networks operating out of high-crime lodging locations, according to the Justice Department. U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant said Smith and his associates “posed an immediate and ongoing threat to the public,” adding that their illegal gun sales “flooded the streets of Memphis with instruments of death.” Dunavant credited the ATF and its federal and local law enforcement partners with taking the group “out of business,” saying Memphis is safer as a result.
The case lands amid a broader law enforcement push across Shelby County. The Memphis Safe Task Force — which combines federal agencies, local police and National Guard personnel — carried out 853 arrests and recovered 118 illegal firearms in August alone, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. That surge follows a year in which Memphis Police Department year-end statistics showed violent crime dropping sharply in 2025, including a 26% decline in homicides — falling below 200 for the first time since 2019 — and a 22% reduction in aggravated assaults, per the City of Memphis. Police have attributed those gains largely to targeted enforcement against repeat violent offenders and illegal firearms.
A Corridor Under Continued Scrutiny
The Lamar Avenue corridor has remained a focus of Memphis law enforcement well beyond the Economy Hotel case. Hoodline has reported on other enforcement actions in the area, including an armed robbery investigation at a nearby motel and a death investigation near Trezevant that referenced ongoing nuisance actions at area lodging facilities. Whether the owners of the former Economy Hotel property face any civil penalties or asset forfeiture as part of separate nuisance proceedings remains an open question not addressed in the federal case against Buford, Smith, Munn and Hibler.
