A 19-year-old man from Greenbelt, Maryland, has pleaded guilty to federal drug dealing and firearms charges, including the ownership of a modified pistol legally considered a machine gun.
Donald Fortune, Jr., pleaded guilty Monday to possession of oxycodone and fentanyl with the intent to distribute, possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, and illegal possession of a machine gun.
Law enforcement began monitoring Fortune Jr. in April 2022. Their investigation included looking at his social media posts in which drugs and guns were advertised for sale. A search warrant was obtained for Fortune Jr.’s apartment.
On June 2, 2022, police were sitting outside Fortune Jr.’s apartment building conducting surveillance and waiting to execute the warrant, when they saw him come outside and approach a silver Honda Civic.
Fortune Jr. was seen removing a bag of blue pills from a satchel, interacting with the driver, and returning inside with the pills back in the satchel.
Shortly afterward, Fortune Jr. exited again and got in a rideshare with a female companion. Police followed the rideshare car and stopped it. When officers saw Fortune Jr. reach for his feet, they asked him to get out of the car.
Police then found a .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol on the floor. There was one round in the gun, along with an extended 21-round magazine and an illegal auto-selector switch on the back of the gun. The switch made the pistol a machine gun, in the eyes of the law.
Prince George’s County police also found the pills inside the satchel — the bag had 232 blue, 30-milligram pills. Testing later found these to be counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl.
Fortune Jr. was charged and held for 12 days before being put on pretrial release on June 14, 2022. Police said Fortune Jr. continued his illegal gun and drug sales after being released, scheduling one such deal to get around a court appearance.
Fortune Jr. also switched to a second social media account, which investigators also began monitoring. On July 26, 2022, Fortune Jr. was seen live-streaming himself smoking a marijuana blunt and posing with prescription medicine bottles, an AR-style semi-automatic pistol, money, and at least six other firearms splayed out on a table.
That night, Prince George’s County officers patrolling in the 6400 block of District Heights saw Fortune Jr. toss an item underneath a pickup truck before walking away. He attempted to flee, but was quickly caught.
A subsequent search of the area found a privately made “ghost gun” with no serial number — a 5.56 caliber semi-automatic AR-style pistol with one round in the chamber and a 30-round magazine.
A search of Fortune Jr. found two pill bottles containing oxycodone pills and fake oxycodone pills containing fentanyl.
If the court accepts the plea agreement, Fortune Jr. now faces seven to 10 years in prison.
