Antwon Brown, a convicted felon and known Unknown Vice Lords street gang member, was recently sentenced to 138 months in federal prison for drug and firearm charges.
Members of the Vice Lords street gang distribute cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, and some heroin in Illinois, Tennessee, and other states, according to the Department of Justice. Vice Lords gangs in the Volunteer State are located predominantly in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, and Nashville.
Brown was sentenced for “being a convicted felon in possession of firearms, possession of marijuana and methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, and possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking,” according to a press release by the Western District of Tennessee U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Citing information presented in court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reports in its press release that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) began an investigation into Brown, 30, in February.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office reports that a confidential informant purchased a firearm and approximately half a pound of marijuana from Brown in a parking lot on Whitten Road in Memphis on February 14. Two months later, Brown was arrested and found to be in possession of marijuana, methamphetamine, digital scales, plastic baggies, and a pistol, the Attorney’s Office adds.
In court on September 12, Brown pled guilty to all 7 counts of a federal indictment. The indictment charged him with two counts of being a convicted felon in possession of firearms, three counts of possession of marijuana and methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, and two counts of possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking.
Brown was sentenced on December 15 by United States District Judge Sheryl Lipman. According to the attorney’s office, Brown’s 138-month sentence is to be followed by three years of supervised release.
The ATF investigated Brown’s case and Assistant United States Attorneys Wendy K. Cornejo and P. Neal Oldham prosecuted it.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
The sentence should be longer.