An Atlanta man whose sentence for fentanyl trafficking was commuted by President Joe Biden has been arrested again on federal charges of possessing with intent to distribute controlled substances, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Walter Lee Muhammad, 46, appeared in federal court in the Northern District of Georgia on Thursday. His latest arrest comes less than two years after Biden commuted his decade-long sentence for a February 2020 federal conviction for possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. Muhammad was among 1,498 federal prisoners whose sentences Biden commuted on December 12, 2024.
"Despite receiving a second chance, this defendant returned to trafficking fentanyl and putting lives at risk," Jae W. Chung, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Atlanta Field Division, said in a press release.
According to prosecutors, federal agents apprehended Muhammad on August 5 as he loaded multiple bags of suspected drugs into his BMW in Atlanta. He then drove the vehicle more than 330 miles to Greensboro, North Carolina. A traffic stop in North Carolina by the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office led authorities to discover 29 kilograms of suspected cocaine in Muhammad’s vehicle, resulting in his arrest.
The following day, DEA agents searched Muhammad’s Atlanta apartment, where they found an additional seven kilograms of suspected heroin and two kilograms of suspected fentanyl. A federal complaint was filed against him on August 14, charging him with intent to distribute controlled substances. He was brought before a federal magistrate judge in North Carolina on August 13. Prosecutors stated Muhammad is expected to appear in the Northern District of Georgia at a later date and is currently in US Marshals Service custody.
This is not Muhammad's first encounter with drug trafficking charges. He was previously convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine in August 1999 and conspiracy to distribute marijuana in November 2010.
