Hasan Ali Muhammed

Introduction

Hasan Ali Muhammed, a 61-year-old Rocky Mount, Virginia man also known as “Paul Burwell,” has been sentenced to 40 months in federal prison for illegally possessing a firearm, after deputies responding to a family trespassing call in October 2022 discovered he was a federal fugitive and tracked him to a culvert pipe using a drone. Muhammed pleaded guilty in August 2026 to one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert N. Tracci for the Western District of Virginia announced the sentence.

Background Information

The encounter that produced the case began at approximately 4 p.m. on October 23, 2022, when a caller identified in court documents as T.N. contacted the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office to report a trespassing on behalf of her friend, V.L. According to T.N., two men were on V.L.’s property and V.L. felt threatened. The caller told deputies the two men were V.L.’s uncles, Jack and Paul Burwell — the latter being an alias for Muhammed. When deputies spoke with V.L., she indicated her uncle was wanted by “the feds,” and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed with the U.S. Marshals Service that Muhammed was wanted on an active warrant for bulk cash smuggling out of Florida.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Pleaded guilty and sentenced. Muhammed pleaded guilty in August 2026 to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and has been sentenced to 40 months in federal prison.

Later in the evening of October 23, 2022, V.L. called the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office again and reported that Muhammed was knocking at her basement door. Deputies quickly responded to the home. Working with the Virginia State Police and the U.S. Marshals Service, the sheriff’s office used a drone and other law enforcement methods to locate Muhammed in a culvert pipe, where he was eventually taken into custody — the end of a manhunt that had begun with a family disturbance call hours earlier.

At the time of his arrest, Muhammed was found in possession of $12,000 in cash and a birth certificate belonging to another person — the cash consistent with the bulk-cash-smuggling warrant that made him a federal fugitive, and the document raising the identity questions that accompanied his capture. The following day, officers found a Glock 21 with an extra magazine and a shotgun ammo belt with shotgun shells concealed under mud and water in the culvert pipe — the firearm he had carried into the pipe and hidden there while deputies searched.

The firearm charge followed from that recovery: as a previously convicted felon, Muhammed could not lawfully possess the Glock or the ammunition belt, and the culvert-pipe concealment became the case’s central physical evidence. He pleaded guilty in August 2026 to one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The release does not state the status of the Florida bulk-cash-smuggling case underlying the fugitive warrant, or the disposition for Jack Burwell, the other man named on the property that day.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The sentence was announced by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracci, with the investigation credited jointly to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Virginia State Police. The 40-month term runs on top of whatever resolution the Florida bulk-cash-smuggling case receives, and the conviction adds a new federal firearms record to Muhammed’s name. The announcement contains no statement from Muhammed or an attorney.

The drone-assisted search that ended the manhunt is the case’s operational signature: a trespassing caller, a family member’s statement about a fugitive uncle, and an aerial search of the property’s drainage structures located a man who had been wanted long enough to be living under an alias within his own family’s neighborhood.

Current Status

As of the announcement, Muhammed is sentenced to 40 months in federal prison following his August 2026 guilty plea to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The release does not name the sentencing judge, state when he entered Bureau of Prisons custody, or describe whether the Florida bulk-cash-smuggling warrant underlying his fugitive status has been resolved. What is fixed is the plea, the 40-month term, and the recovery record: the cash, the birth certificate in another person’s name, and the Glock 21 concealed under mud and water in the culvert pipe.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Muhammed’s capture ended a fugitive run that had carried him back to his own family’s doorstep under the Paul Burwell alias, with $12,000 in cash and another person’s birth certificate in his pockets and a hidden Glock waiting in the culvert pipe where he hid. At 61, the 40-month sentence places his release near age 65, and the firearms conviction ensures that any future contact with a weapon is again a federal case. The family trespassing call that started it shows how fugitive hunts now end: not at a border or a checkpoint, but when a relative dials the sheriff.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Virginia, “Rocky Mount Rocky Mount Man Sentenced for Illegal Possession of a Firearm,” November 5, 2026. source