District Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Firearm and Drug Trafficking Offenses

            WASHINGTON – Antwan Shelton, 34, of Washington, D.C., pled guilty today to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense, and possessing three separate quantities of narcotics with an intent to distribute them, announced U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu and Peter Newsham, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            Shelton pled guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense and one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine base, buprenorphine, and marijuana. The charges require a mandatory minimum sentence of five years of incarceration and up to life imprisonment. The Honorable Tanya S. Chutkan scheduled sentencing for Sept. 10, 2018.

            The government’s evidence established that on Dec. 2, 2016, members of MPD’s Narcotics and Special Investigations Division executed a search warrant at a residence in the 4600 block of B Street SE. Upon gaining entry to the residence, law enforcement secured Shelton outside a bathroom while he was wearing a towel around his body and while the water was running in the bathroom shower. Upon entry into the bathroom, officers recovered an MPD-issued Glock 17 pistol that was stolen from an MPD officer months earlier. The firearm was loaded with sixteen  .9mm rounds in the magazine and one .9mm round in the chamber.

            Officers also recovered in the bathroom a lunch bag containing distribution quantities of cocaine base, marijuana, and suboxone strips, and $3,095 in cash. In Shelton’s bedroom, law enforcement recovered a ziplock bag containing twenty .45-caliber rounds of ammunition and twenty .40 -caliber rounds of ammunition. A drum magazine with .9mm-caliber rounds of ammunition was recovered from a clothes hamper. A ballistic vest was on the top shelf of a closet. Drug paraphernalia also was recovered in the residence. Law enforcement also obtained photographs from Shelton’s cellphone that corroborated his connection to the residence where he was arrested and the distinct lunch bag from which he was trafficking narcotics. 

            Shelton’s plea will result in his third firearms conviction and second drug trafficking conviction.

            In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Liu and Chief Newsham commended the work of MPD’s Narcotics and Special Investigations Unit. They also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, including Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Macchiaroli and Laura Crane, and Paralegal Specialist Candace Battle.