Drug Dealer Sentenced To 60 Months For Illegal Firearm Purchase

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that Collin Blount, 28, of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced today in United States District Court in Burlington following his guilty plea to Possession of a Firearm in Furtherance of Drug Trafficking. U.S. District Court Judge William K. Sessions III sentenced Blount to 60 months in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision, on the parties’ joint recommendation.

According to court records, the defendant was charged with three counts of the Distribution of Cocaine Base in the Rutland area of Vermont, between May 7, 2014 and May 19, 2014. The defendant was also charged with the firearms count stemming from his illegal purchase of a firearm from an undercover special agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, on July 2, 2014.

In exchange for what Blount believed was a .40 caliber Glock model 22, Blount presented the undercover agent with approximately 2.4 grams of cocaine base. When law enforcement agents moved in on Blount in a corner of a parking lot in order to effect his arrest, Blount backed up his vehicle towards the law enforcement vehicles and then accelerated forward, driving into and then onto the curb and median, at a high rate of speed. In his attempt to evade arrest, Blount struck a law enforcement vehicle and a pickup truck, and then drove into the woods, where his vehicle struck trees in the treeline. Blount then fled on foot and was discovered hiding in the brush by a K9 and a search team.

The United States Attorney, Eric S. Miller, specifically thanks the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, as well as the Vermont State Police Drug Task Force, for their hard work and cooperation in the investigation of this case.

Blount was represented by Mark Kaplan, Esq. The prosecutor was Assistant U.S. Attorney Abigail Averbach.