BS BULLETIN
- Biden commuted Walter Lee Muhammad’s 10-year fentanyl sentence in December 2024. Federal prosecutors say he’s now back in custody on new drug charges.
- Authorities allegedly seized 29 kilograms of cocaine, seven kilograms of heroin and two kilograms of fentanyl.
- Muhammad already had three prior federal drug-trafficking convictions.
Former President Joe Biden gave convicted fentanyl trafficker Walter Lee Muhammad an early ticket out of federal prison as part of his massive December 2024 clemency action.
Federal prosecutors now say Muhammad used his second chance to go right back into the drug business. And we’re not talking about a few baggies.
Muhammad, 46, is back in federal custody after investigators allegedly found approximately 29 kilograms of suspected cocaine in his BMW and later seized another seven kilograms of suspected heroin and two kilograms of suspected fentanyl from his Atlanta apartment.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced the new case Thursday, but it received fresh national attention Monday after the New York Post highlighted the extraordinary connection to Biden’s clemency spree.
There is one important correction to the Post’s headline: Biden did not technically pardon Muhammad. He commuted his sentence. A pardon forgives an offense; a commutation reduces the punishment while leaving the conviction intact.
In Muhammad’s case, Biden cut short a 10-year federal sentence imposed in February 2020 for possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. He was one of nearly 1,500 people whose sentences Biden commuted on December 12, 2024.
At the time, the Biden White House celebrated the historic clemency action as an exercise in second chances, saying those receiving commutations had been placed on home confinement during the pandemic and had “successfully reintegrated into their families and communities.” Local Atlanta coverage notes that Muhammad was among that group.
Federal authorities now paint a rather different picture of Muhammad’s reintegration. According to prosecutors, DEA agents conducting a narcotics investigation watched Muhammad load several bags of suspected drugs into a BMW in Atlanta on August 5. Agents followed him more than 300 miles to Greensboro, North Carolina. There, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office stopped the BMW. A K-9 allegedly alerted officers to narcotics, and investigators say a search turned up approximately 29 kilograms of suspected cocaine. Muhammad was arrested.
The next day, DEA agents executed a search warrant at his Midtown Atlanta apartment. What did they allegedly find? Two kilograms of suspected fentanyl and seven kilograms of suspected heroin. And there’s more.
WSB Radio reports that agents also searched a southwest Atlanta property and recovered three firearms, including a stolen pistol.
“Despite receiving a second chance, this defendant returned to trafficking fentanyl and putting lives at risk,” DEA Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Jae W. Chung said.
U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg was equally blunt. “Muhammad has repeatedly demonstrated his disregard for the law and the safety of our communities by allegedly continuing to traffic dangerous drugs,” Hertzberg said in announcing the case.
This wasn’t Muhammad’s first drug conviction before the fentanyl case. Or his second.
Federal prosecutors say Muhammad was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine in 1999. In 2010, he was convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
Then came the 2020 fentanyl conviction. Three federal drug-trafficking convictions. Then a presidential commutation. And now another alleged drug-trafficking operation involving cocaine, heroin and fentanyl.
Muhammad appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Greensboro on August 13 and is being held by the U.S. Marshals Service. He is expected to appear later in the Northern District of Georgia.
The allegations remain charges, and Muhammad is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. But politically, the case raises an unavoidable question about Biden’s decision to grant clemency on such an enormous scale.
Biden’s December 2024 action was billed by his administration as the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern American history. The White House argued that people serving sentences on home confinement deserved opportunities to return permanently to their communities.
DBS WIRE SOURCES:
- New York Post — Atlanta drug trafficker pardoned by Biden arrested again for selling fentanyl: feds
- U.S. Department of Justice — Multi-Time Felon Who Received 2024 Commutation for Fentanyl Trafficking Nabbed in Large Fentanyl Seizure
- FOX 5 Atlanta — Atlanta man whose sentence Biden commuted faces drug charge
- 11Alive — Convicted drug trafficker commuted by President Biden facing new fentanyl charge
- WSB Radio — Atlanta felon who received 2024 commutation charged after fentanyl seizure
