Local Restaurant Owner Sentenced on Felon In Possession of Firearms and Ammunition Charge

Columbia, South Carolina ---- United States Attorney Beth Drake stated that Nigel Michael Sandiford, a/k/a “Marvin H. Rogers,” a/k/a “Cecil Price,” age 43, of Columbia, was sentenced today in federal court after earlier pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2). Senior United States District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, of Columbia, sentenced Sandiford to 12 months and 1 day imprisonment along with a $5,500.00 fine and $100 special assessment. Sandiford, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, waived deportation proceedings and agreed to be deported immediately following his service of the imposed term of imprisonment.

Evidence presented in court during the March 2017 guilty plea hearing established that after receiving information from New Jersey law enforcement, federal agents obtained and executed a federal search warrant at Sandiford’s Montego Bay restaurant on Parklane Road in Columbia on July 18, 2016. Inside the restaurant, agents located a Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun, a Glock .45 caliber handgun, along with rounds of 12 gauge shotgun shells, .40 caliber ammunition, .45 caliber ammunition, and a 30-round high capacity magazine containing 9mm ammunition. Sandiford admitted to possessing the firearms and ammunition and to having a prior Richland County drug conviction under the alias “Marvin H. Rogers,” as well as prior New York convictions under the alias “Cecil Price.”

Sandiford is prohibited under federal law from possessing firearms and ammunition based upon his prior state convictions, which includes a South Carolina conviction for possession with intent to distribute cocaine and New York convictions for possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell 3rd degree, criminal possession of a weapon 3rd degree – defaced for concealment, and menacing.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state and local Project CeaseFire initiative, which aggressively prosecutes firearm cases. Assistant United States Attorney Stacey D. Haynes of the Columbia office handled the case.

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