NEW ORLEANS, LA – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that Judge Wendy B. Vitter sentenced BLAKE MONROE on June 2, 2022, to 120 months in prison, three (3) years of supervised release, and $200 in mandatory special assessment fees for being a felon in possession of a loaded AK-47 seized during a New Orleans Police Department traffic stop and for possessing with intent to distribute a quantity of crack cocaine.
MONROE, age 31, a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, pled guilty on November 3, 2021, to being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 922(g)(1), and to the crack cocaine offense, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(C). MONROE has prior felony convictions in Orleans Parish.
According to court records, during a December 11, 2019, traffic stop, NOPD officers observed in plain sight a loaded AK-47, with the selector switch in the fire position, on the back floor of a Mercedes driven by MONROE. NOPD officers had pulled MONROE over after two NOPD officers observed MONROE conduct a suspected hand-to-hand crack sale in New Orleans East. During his booking at jail that same afternoon, an Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy found approximately 24 grams of crack cocaine that MONROE had hidden on his body.
This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, Hammond Police Department, New Orleans Police Department, and Slidell Police Department in investigating this matter. Assistant United States Attorney David Howard Sinkman is in charge of the prosecution.