Louisiana Man Found Guilty of Weapons Violations and Trafficking Fentanyl and Cocaine

New Orleans, Louisiana – United States Attorney Duane A. Evans announced on September 23, 2022, that Derrick Estes, age 42, of New Orleans, Louisiana was found guilty as charged on September 21, 2022, after a two-day jury trial before U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey.

Estes was found guilty on all four counts in the superseding indictment by the jury. In Count 1, the superseding indictment accused Estes of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and cocaine. Estes was charged in Count 2 with possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking violation, and in Count 3 with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Finally, Count 4 charged Estes with possessing cocaine with the intent to distribute and possess more than 40 grams of fentanyl.

Due to a major surge in shootings and homicides, the FBI’s New Orleans Violent Crime Task Force collaborated with the New Orleans Police Department in the Algiers district of New Orleans between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) responded to Estes’ shooting on the 1400 block of Teche Street in Algiers on January 17, 2021. Estes did not report the incident to police or EMS and was taken to the hospital by his girlfriend. The hospital called the police and gave them the approximate location of the gunshot.

During that investigation, police discovered security camera footage of the shooting and witnessed Estes exit his vehicle after the shooting and remove many items from his vehicle to the Estes family’s apartment at 1412 Teche Street. Investigators chose to acquire a search warrant and executed it on the premises. NOPD discovered various items associated with Estes, including a large amount of narcotics, notably cocaine and fentanyl, drug-selling paraphernalia, and three firearms, one of which was an AK47 rifle. Following the shooting of his brother, Joe Estes, at a property on Nunez Street in Algiers around one month before, investigators noticed Estes having a very similar AK47 rifle on a Real Time Crime Camera.

Estes was apprehended on February 1, 2021, at another residence in Algiers, after an arrest warrant was issued. Following Estes’ arrest, NOPD searched the residence and the vehicle he was spotted driving. Additional narcotics, specifically cocaine and over 40 grams of fentanyl, drug-selling accessories, and roughly $2800 were recovered as a consequence of that search.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program that brings all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve together to minimize violent crime and gun violence and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. The Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy to strengthen PSN on May 26, 2021, based on the following core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New Orleans Police Department investigated the case. Assistant United States Attorneys Inga Petrovich and Mike Trummel of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Violent Crime Unit are prosecuting the case.