United States Drug Enforcement Administration

BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that on May 31, 2022, Hussein Mubarak, 21, of Burlington, Vermont, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss to 10 months’ imprisonment and a 3-year term of supervised release for possession with intent to distribute cocaine base.

As Mubarak admitted in his guilty plea hearing, the Burlington Police Department encountered him on May 14, 2021, when Mubarak was found to possess two plastic bags containing cocaine base in his pants pocket.  Mubarak further admitted that the quantity of cocaine base found in his pants pocket was consistent with distribution and not personal use.  As described in court records, when Burlington Police Department officers arrested Mubarak on September 5, 2021, Mubarak possessed a semiautomatic handgun.  As a result of this federal felony conviction, Mubarak will now be prohibited from obtaining or possessing firearms. 

United States Attorney Nikolas P. Kerest commended the efforts of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives as well as the Burlington Police Department in the investigation and prosecution of Mubarak. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew C. Gilman was the prosecutor on the case. Mubarak was represented by Assistant Federal Public Defender Sara M. Puls.

This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime.  Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.  As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.  https://www.justice.gov/psn