Mercer County Felon Sentenced to More than 8 Years for Illegal Gun Possession

PITTSBURGH - Diquan Crowder was sentenced to 100 months in prison for possessing a firearm after a prior felony conviction, United States Attorney Cindy K. Chung announced today.

Crowder, age 28 of Farrell, Pennsylvania, was sentenced by United States District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan. Judge Ranjan also sentenced Crowder to three years of supervised release following his prison sentence.

On November 20, 2020, Crowder possessed a loaded and stolen AK 47-style Zastava pistol at his residence in Farrell, Pennsylvania. A finding was made during Crowder’s sentencing hearing that he possessed the AK 47-style pistol on that date in connection with the felony crime of drug trafficking. As of that date, Crowder had already been convicted of a felony gun crime as a result of a state prosecution in 2014 and had also been convicted of a felony drug trafficking crime as a result of another state prosecution in 2016.

Assistant United States Attorney Craig W. Haller prosecuted this case on behalf of the United States.

The Mercer County Drug Task Force, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation leading to the conviction and sentence in this case. This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) which 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.