Source: United States Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that JOHNNIE HAGANS (“HAGANS”), age 32, was sentenced on January 30, 2025, by United States District Judge Carl J. Barbier, after previously pleading guilty to a multi-count indictment. Count 1 charged him with possession with the intent to distribute cocaine and fentanyl, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(C). Count 2 charged him with possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 924(c)(1)(A)(1). Counts 3 and 4 charged him with being a felon in possession a firearm, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(8).
HAGANS was sentenced to 157 months imprisonment as to all counts of the indictment, with Counts 1, 3, and 4 to run concurrently, and the sentence for Count 2 to run consecutively to those counts. Judge Barbier also placed HAGANS on supervised release for 3 years and ordered payment of a $400 mandatory special assessment fee.
According to court documents, on January 23, 2024, a New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) officer surveilling a Valero gas station in New Orleans saw HAGANS making multiple hand-to-hand drug sales. NOPD patrol officers detected an object in HAGANS’s waistband recognizable as a firearm. HAGANS fled from the officers and discarded a Ruger Model LCPII, .380 caliber pistol, that officers later recovered, in an open lot. Officers also obtained a search warrant for a Nissan Rogue SUV located in the Valero gas station parking lot that HAGANS had previously accessed. Inside the SUV, officers found a Kahr Arms Model CW40, .40 caliber pistol, and a plastic bag containing cocaine. Officers later obtained a search warrant for HAGANS’s residence and recovered a Romarm/Cugir Model Micro Draco, 7.62-millimeter pistol and an Anderson Arms Model AM-15, .223 caliber /5.56-millimeter pistol.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.
U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Troy Bell of the Violent Crime Unit.