Loris Man Sentenced to Five Years in Federal Prison for Possessing a Firearm in Furtherance of Drug Trafficking

Florence, South Carolina — United States Attorney Peter M. McCoy, Jr., announced today that Nakeem Supreme Jenerette, 20, of Loris, was sentenced to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Evidence presented to the court showed that on September 25, 2019, officers from the Horry County Police Department responded to a call for service in reference to shots fired in Loris. When officers arrived, they saw a car leaving at a high rate of speed.  Officers attempted to initiate an investigative traffic stop of the car, but the car would not stop.  Instead, the car led officers on a high-speed chase, disregarding several stop signs.  The car chase ended in Longs, where both the driver and passenger exited the car while it was still moving and ran on foot.  Both the driver and passenger were taken into custody a short time later.

An officer located the passenger, Nakeem Jenerette, in the woods laying on the ground next to an American tactical .223 caliber firearm with a loaded 30-round magazine clip. The firearm was wrapped in a T-shirt, which contained 10 expended .223 rounds. A search of Jenerette revealed a clear plastic Ziploc bag containing multiple bags of what was later confirmed by laboratory analysis to be cocaine and cocaine base (commonly known as “crack” cocaine).

United States District Judge Donald C. Coggins, Jr. sentenced Jenerette to 60 months in federal prison, to be followed by a five-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 Horry County Police Department. 

This case 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.