Department of Justice

Florence, South Carolina ---- United States Attorney Sherri A. Lydon announced today that Eron Jordan, 28, of Conway, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances.

Evidence presented to the court showed that on May 22, 2018, an officer with the Conway Police Department was on patrol when he saw a vehicle with tinted windows so dark that he could not see the driver through the front side window.  The officer initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle, and upon approaching the vehicle, smelled an odor of marijuana.  The officer explained the window tint violation to the driver, identified as Eron Jordan, asked Jordan to step out of the vehicle, and asked about the odor of marijuana.  Jordan disagreed about the odor and said he had no objections to the officers looking in the vehicle.  Officers searched the vehicle and discovered two bags of crack cocaine and two bags of heroin in the center console; a Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun in the glove compartment, loaded with 16 rounds of ammunition; a silver scale in the front passenger door; several cell phones; a glass jar with a small amount of suspected marijuana; $335.00 in cash in the driver’s door; and $5,762.00 in cash in a book bag on the rear passenger seat.  A search of a passenger in the vehicle revealed 70 Hydrocodone pills, 69 Oxycodone pills, and 10 Buprenorphine pills.  Jordan admitted that everything in the car was his and nothing belonged to the passenger. 

Federal law prohibits Jordan from possessing firearms and ammunition because he has two prior state convictions for pointing and presenting a firearm.   

Chief United States District Judge R. Bryan Harwell, of Florence, sentenced Jordan to 144 months in federal prison, to be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision.  There is no parole in the federal system. 

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Conway Police Department, assisted by the Horry County Police Department and the Horry County Sheriff’s Office.  It was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local 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.

Assistant United States Attorney Lauren Hummel of the Florence office prosecuted the case. 

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