Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

CINCINNATI – Rodney Anderson, 35, of Cincinnati, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 72 months in prison for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense.

Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Jonathan McPherson, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot K. Isaac, announced the sentence handed down today by U.S. District Judge Timothy S. Black.

According to court documents, in July 2018, Narcotics Unit investigators with the Cincinnati Police Department were working overtime targeting citywide drug hotspots. While conducting surveillance near the 1600 block of Race Street, they observed Anderson in his vehicle. Anderson violated a traffic law at West Liberty and Elm streets.

During the traffic stop, officers discovered more than 60 bindles containing a detectable amount of fentanyl and a pistol. Anderson pleaded guilty in January to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense.

U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the cooperative investigation by ATF and Cincinnati Police, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Springer, who is representing the United States in this case.

This case is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

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