Palm Beach County Resident Pleads Guilty to Possessing Fentanyl and Crack Cocaine with Intent to Distribute and Being a Felon in Possession of a Firearm

Lucius Brown III, 35, of Riveria Beach, pled guilty today to possessing fentanyl and crack cocaine with the intent to distribute and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Ariana Fajardo Orshan, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Adolphus P. Wright, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Miami Field Division and Ric Bradshaw, Sheriff, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO), made the announcement.

According to the court docket, including the agreed upon factual proffer, on June 8, 2018, PBSO deputies conducted a traffic stop in Lake Worth, Florida.  Law enforcement smelled the odor of marijuana and found Brown to be in possession of narcotics.  During arrest processing, deputies learned that Brown may have left his one-month old baby alone in a hotel room.  Based on their concerns for the safety of the child, law enforcement went to the hotel and entered Brown’s hotel room.  Inside the hotel room, they found cocaine and marijuana in plain-view on a desk and Brown’s baby lying face down on the bed.  Subsequently, a search warrant was executed in the hotel room and other items, including fentanyl and materials for drug distribution, were discovered.   Additionally, located in the desk near the sleeping baby was Brown’s semi-automatic pistol, containing six rounds of ammunition.  A hollow-point round was in the chamber of the firearm. 

Brown had previously been convicted of several felony offenses and was prohibited from possessing a firearm and ammunition. 

Brown is scheduled to be sentenced to by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Robin L. Rosenberg on January 31, 2019 at 10 a.m.   He faces a statutory maximum term of imprisonment of twenty years for the narcotics conviction.  Because Brown qualifies as an armed career criminal, he faces a mandatory minimum term of fifteen years in prison for being a felon in possession.  These sentences can be imposed consecutively.

This case is the result of the ongoing efforts by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) a partnership that brings together the combined expertise and unique abilities of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, dismantle and prosecute members of drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations and enterprises. This case is part of OCDETF’s strategic initiative to combat heroin and opioid related addiction and drug trafficking and results from the collective enforcement efforts of Operation Strike Out and Operation White Dragon. 

U.S. Attorney Fajardo Orshan commended the investigatory efforts of the DEA and PBSO in this matter.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Chase.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.