Hartsville man pleads guilty to drug charges

A Hartsville man has pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute cocaine and possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, U.S. Attorney W. Walter Wilkins said in a press release.

U.S. District Judge R. Bryan Harwell accepted the plea from 24-year-old Antonio Maurice Montgomery and will sentence him later. Montgomery faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum possible sentence of life.

In 2007, during two different traffic stops, Montgomery was found to have cocaine in his car. In the first instance, while Montgomery was retrieving his registration information, officers saw a revolver in the glove box. Upon searching him, officers found 8.21 grams of cocaine.

During the second incident, Montgomery was stopped at a checkpoint and had more than 5 grams of cocaine in his car.

The case was investigated by the Hartsville Police Department, the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rose Mary Parham is prosecuting the case as part of Project CeaseFire, an initiative of the U.S. Attorney’s Office that seeks to aggressively prosecute gun and violent crime.