On Tuesday, Ronald Johnson, a 27-year-old New Orleans resident, was sentenced to a term of 106 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release after pleading guilty to a series of federal drug and weapon violations, as reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Johnson, who has previous felony convictions, including for first degree robbery, faced charges related to the intent to distribute controlled substances, namely tapentadol and tramadol, and felonious firearm possession.
Court documents detailed that Johnson was actively distributing these painkillers throughout New Orleans in the years 2022 and 2023 up until the FBI executed a search warrant at his home in May 2023, during which they found two loaded semi-automatic pistols with high-capacity magazines. Johnson, being a convicted felon, was prohibited from possessing any firearms.
The case against Johnson is part of the wider initiative known as Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), which aims to reduce violent crime and gun violence through cooperation between law enforcement agencies and local communities. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the revamped PSN approach, introduced in 2021, to garner trust in communities, support violence prevention mechanisms at the local level, allocate enforcement resources strategically, and thoroughly assess the impact of these efforts…