AURORA | An Aurora gang member caught with close to an ounce of cocaine and several guns — including a “streetsweeper” shotgun — has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Michael Eugene Simpson, 35, was convicted in June of possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of an unregistered destructive device and possession of ammunition by a convicted felon. A federal judge last week sentenced him to 240 months in federal prison.
According to federal prosecutors, in June 2014 Aurora police and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents acting on a tip tried to search Simpson’s Aurora home for guns and drugs.
When law enforcement arrived around 3 a.m., Simpson was sitting in a car in the driveway and tried to speed away, slamming his car into a police vehicle several times before officers subdued him with a Taser.
When officers searched the property, they found a loaded .40-caliber Smith and Wesson, a loaded Cobray 12-gauge Streetsweeper shotgun in the garage, a loaded .380-caliber Bersa handgun in a safe and 20 grams of cocaine in a plastic bag on the kitchen counter. In a picture released Friday, the shotgun — which has a drum magazine capable of holding several rounds — is shown sitting on a child’s toy Power Wheels car in the garage.
More than 100 rounds of ammunition were scattered around the house, prosecutors said, in the safe, in a desk, on top of the refrigerator and in kitchen cabinets. Investigators also found a digital scale, a beaker, plastic bags used to distribute cocaine.
Simpson, a member of the 83 Gangster Crips, has previous drug-related felony convictions and those convictions barred him from possessing guns or ammunition legally, prosecutors said.
“A small number of criminals account for a large part of the crime problem, and this case is a perfect example,” U.S. Attorney John Walsh said in a statement Friday announcing the sentence.
Prosecutors did not release a mug shot of Simpson.