Byron Butler

Guilty plea entered; not yet sentenced. Butler, 33, pleaded guilty on October 15, 2026 to conspiracy to distribute marijuana and to possession of a machinegun. Sentencing is scheduled for January 19, 2027, and the charges against him are resolved by plea but not yet by sentence.

Introduction

Byron Butler, 33, of New Orleans, pleaded guilty on October 15, 2026 to running a marijuana sales operation out of his apartment and to keeping an AR-style rifle fitted with a machinegun conversion device — a weapon that, as he put it to the officers who arrested him, would “make it rapid fire” . The plea was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana on October 21, 2026, and resolves counts carrying up to five years on the drug conspiracy and up to ten on the machinegun . U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey will sentence him on January 19, 2027 .

Background Information

According to court documents, the conspiracy began in April 2025, when Butler started working with another person to sell marijuana in New Orleans; by August 2025 he was advertising the drug for sale on a social media platform . On August 26, 2025, New Orleans Police Department officers arrested Butler and searched his apartment, finding three firearms and drug-sales paraphernalia . One of the firearms — an AR-style rifle found on the living-room couch — was fitted with a machinegun conversion device that made it fire automatically, the fact that turned a drug case into a gun case . Text messages recovered from his phone showed Butler and his co-conspirator coordinating marijuana sales, resupply trips, and profits .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

After his arrest, Butler admitted he had been selling marijuana and earning $500 to $600 a day, and that he had bought the rifle and the conversion device “on the streets” . He told officers the device would “make it rapid fire” — his own description of what the part did to the rifle police found on his couch . His guilty plea to possession of a machinegun under 18 U.S.C. § 922(o) attaches to that weapon, and the drug-sales ledger behind it — the daily earnings, the social-media ads, the resupply coordination in his phone — is what the conspiracy count resolves .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the New Orleans Police Department, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Paul J. Hubbell, I.V. of the Narcotics Unit . The release frames the prosecution under Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Department’s violent-crime coordination initiative, as part of Operation Take Back America . Butler faces up to 5 years imprisonment and at least 2 years of supervised release on the marijuana conspiracy count, and up to 10 years and up to 3 years of supervised release on the machinegun count, plus fines of up to $250,000 on each .

Current Status

Butler, 33, awaits sentencing by U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey on January 19, 2027, after his October 15, 2026 guilty pleas to the marijuana conspiracy and the machinegun possession . The release does not name his co-conspirator or describe any separate charges against that person, and does not state whether the other two firearms found in the apartment carry any additional proceedings . The converted rifle on the couch remains the case’s center of gravity — the single object that carries the ten-year maximum .

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 33, Butler’s January sentencing will set the price of two decisions: the marijuana operation he ran at $500 to $600 a day, and the street-bought conversion device that made one of his three firearms fire automatically. The machinegun count is the one that reshapes the case — possession of a converted weapon sits at the center of the current federal enforcement push against Glock switches and rifle conversions, and prosecutors paired it here with the drug trade it was kept near. Between now and sentencing, his admissions — the daily earnings, the “on the streets” purchase, the “rapid fire” description — are the record he will be sentenced on.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Louisiana, “New Orleans Man Guilty of Marijuana Conspiracy and Machinegun Possession,” October 21, 2026 — source