Georgia man sentenced to 262 months in prison on heroin dealing charges

U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia Charles Peeler announced Thursday that 49-year-old Darren Shawn Smith, of Athens, was sentenced to 262 months in prison for possession with intent to distribute heroin and possessing a firearm while doing so.

In a plea agreement, officials say Smith admitted that officers searched his home on November 18, 2016 and discovered a loaded .380 caliber pistol and heroin on his person. He was taken into custody.

Police say they then searched the rest of his residence and found more heroin and signs that Smith had been selling it.

Officials pointed to Smith’s “lengthy” criminal record, and said he had been convicted for armed robbery, aggravated assault with intent to rob, robbery by intimidation, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, burglary, criminal attempt to commit burglary, and theft by receiving stolen property. He was sentenced by United States District Court Judge C. Ashley Royal in Athens, Georgia on January 4, 2018.

Smith’s co-defendant Stacey Stewart was sentenced earlier this year to serve 18 months in federal prison for unlawful use of a communications facility, officials said.

“Darren Shawn Smith is the exact type of dangerous career criminal who should not be walking our streets armed with a firearm, yet that weapon is no deadlier than the drugs he possessed to sell in our community. In this time when firearms violence and opioid addiction are so rampant, the United States Attorney’s Office shall prosecute all such offenders to the fullest extent of the law,” said United States Attorney Peeler.

This story was originally published January 5, 2018 at 7:40 AM with the headline "Georgia man sentenced to 262 months in prison on heroin dealing charges."