New Orleans Man Pleads Guilty to Marijuana Conspiracy and Machinegun Possession
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana announced that Byron Butler, 33, of New Orleans, Louisiana, pleaded guilty on October 15 to conspiracy to distribute, and possess with intent to distribute, marijuana, and to possession of a machinegun. U.S. Attorney David I. Courcelle announced the plea.
According to court documents, beginning in April 2025, Butler conspired with another person to sell marijuana in New Orleans, and in August 2025 he advertised marijuana for sale on a social media platform. On August 26, 2025, New Orleans Police Department officers arrested Butler and searched his apartment, where they found three firearms and drug-sales paraphernalia. One of the firearms, an AR-style rifle found on the living-room couch, was fitted with a machinegun conversion device that made it fire automatically.
After his arrest, Butler admitted that he sold marijuana, earning $500 to $600 a day, and that he bought the rifle and the conversion device 'on the streets.' He told officers the device would 'make it rapid fire.' Text messages recovered from his phone showed Butler and his co-conspirator coordinating marijuana sales, resupply trips, and profits. Butler faces up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and at least two years of supervised release on the marijuana conspiracy count, and up to ten years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release on the machinegun count, plus a mandatory $100 special assessment on each count.
U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey will sentence Butler on January 19, 2027. The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the New Orleans Police Department and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Paul J. Hubbell IV of the Narcotics Unit.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 New Orleans 的 Hale Boggs 联邦大楼暨美国法院入口，本案在此所属的路易斯安那东区联邦法院审理。Tony Webster 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0，经维基共享资源。Photo: The entrance of the Hale Boggs Federal Building and United States Courthouse in New Orleans, in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
