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A Cedar Rapids man, responsible for possessing over 130 grams of marijuana and two guns near a Cedar Rapids school, was sentenced today to 61 months in prison.
Sinqez Juanya Ray, age 19, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison sentence after an October 21, 2020 guilty plea to possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
Information disclosed at sentencing and at his plea hearing showed that in February 2020, Ray was stopped by Cedar Rapids police officers while he was walking near Prairie Ridge Elementary School and Kirkwood Community College. Ray was wearing a backpack. Officers immediately observed the magazine of a firearm and marijuana sticking out of the backpack. Officers searched the backpack and located 139.4 grams of marijuana, a ski mask, digital scales, and two guns, one of which was loaded. Ray admitted that he planned to sell the marijuana and that he carried the firearms in furtherance of his drug distribution activities. Ray has two prior weapons convictions, both from 2019.
Ray was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Ray was sentenced to 61 months’ imprisonment. He was ordered to make payment of $200 to the special assessment fund. He must also serve a 3-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ashley Corkery and investigated by the Cedar Rapids Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN). PSN is 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.
This case is also part of Project Guardian, the Department of Justice’s signature initiative to reduce gun violence and enforce federal firearms laws. Initiated by the Attorney General in the fall of 2019, Project Guardian draws upon the Department’s past successful programs to reduce gun violence; enhances coordination of federal, state, local, and tribal authorities in investigating and prosecuting gun crimes; improves information-sharing by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when a prohibited individual attempts to purchase a firearm and is denied by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), to include taking appropriate actions when a prospective purchaser is denied by the NICS for mental health reasons; and ensures that federal resources are directed at the criminals posing the greatest threat to our communities. For more information about Project Guardian, please see /media/1122011/download?inline.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 20-CR-31.
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