Biden Clemency Recipient Arrested on New Drug Charges

A convicted fentanyl trafficker whose prison sentence was commuted by former President Joe Biden is back in federal custody after authorities allegedly caught him with a massive new stash of fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine.

Walter Lee Muhammad, 46, appeared in federal court Thursday on new charges of possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, according to prosecutors in the Northern District of Georgia.

The arrest came less than two years after Biden commuted Muhammad’s 10-year sentence for a February 2020 federal fentanyl-trafficking conviction.

“Despite receiving a second chance, this defendant returned to trafficking fentanyl and putting lives at risk,” said Jae W. Chung, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Atlanta Field Division.

Muhammad was among 1,498 federal prisoners whose sentences Biden commuted on Dec. 12, 2024.

Prosecutors say DEA agents watched Muhammad load multiple bags of suspected narcotics into a BMW in Atlanta on Aug. 5.

Muhammad then allegedly drove more than 330 miles to Greensboro, North Carolina.

A Guilford County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit helped officers discover approximately 29 kilograms of suspected cocaine inside the vehicle during a traffic stop, according to federal authorities.

The discovery prompted DEA agents to search Muhammad’s Atlanta apartment the following day.

Inside, investigators reportedly found approximately seven kilograms of suspected heroin and two kilograms of suspected fentanyl.

Federal prosecutors filed a complaint charging Muhammad with possession with intent to distribute controlled substances. He appeared before a federal magistrate judge in North Carolina on Aug. 13 and is being held by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Muhammad is expected to appear later in the Northern District of Georgia.

The new charges are accusations that prosecutors must prove in court, and the substances described by authorities remain identified as suspected narcotics pending confirmation.

Biden granted Muhammad early freedom as part of one of the largest single-day acts of clemency in modern presidential history.

Federal prosecutors now say Muhammad used that freedom to return to the same deadly trade that put him behind bars the first time.

More over at The New York Post:

Atlanta drug trafficker pardoned by Biden arrested again for selling fentanyl: feds https://t.co/LmIWIAxA6d pic.twitter.com/KGNtJ4WJPv

— New York Post (@nypost) August 17, 2026