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With two former gun convictions, Sharome Neals, 27, of Carteret is looking at an extended prison term when he’s sentenced on May 25 in U.S. District Court in Newark.
He’ll have to serve nearly all of it because there’s no parole in the federal prison system.
Police who stopped Neals's Ford Taurus for tinted windows in the Red Roof Inn parking lot on Meadowlands Parkway this past Dec. 30 looked deeper after smelling raw marijuana, authorities said at the time.
They found a .45-caliber Glock handgun loaded with 11 rounds of ammunition, along with an additional 33 rounds of ammo in the vehicle, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig said Monday.
The gun had been reported stolen out of Fayetteville, North Carolina, police said.
Several ounces of pot, drug paraphernalia and a small amount of alleged proceeds were also seized, they said.
Neals pleaded guilty to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm during a video-conferenced hearing Monday in Newark.
The case is part of Project Guardian, the Department of Justice’s “signature initiative to reduce gun violence and enforce federal firearms laws,” Honig said.
She credited special agents and task force officers of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives’ Newark Division and Secaucus police for the investigation leading to Monday’s plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cassye Cole of Honig’s Organized Crime and Gangs Unit in Newark.
The U.S. attorney also thanked the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office for its assistance.
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