Bowie Man Sentenced In Armed Robbery Of Pharmaceutical Van Driver

BOWIE, MD — A Bowie man was sentenced to prison for robbing a pharmaceutical van driver and later selling $95K in prescription drugs. Prosecutors said Juwuan Edward Francis Champion, 24, advertised on Instragram the Oxycodone he had stolen.

Champion was sentenced to 121 months in prison Friday for his role in the felony armed robbery of a pharmaceutical van driver and possession of a machine gun, said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves.

Champion, aka “Big Money,” pleaded guilty on Dec. 19, 2023, to conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by robbery (known as conspiracy to commit a Hobbs Act robbery) and unlawful possession of a machine gun. In addition to the 10-years plus one-month prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta ordered Champion to serve three years of supervised release.

Court documents said Champion was among four crew members in a drug trafficking operation in the Potomac Gardens neighborhood of Southeast Washington. The three other members included Fitzgerald Hunt, 24, of Washington, D.C.; Joshua Johnson, 18, of Capitol Heights; and Keyshawn Lavender, 20, of Washington, D.C.

Prosecutors said from January to October 2021, the men sold Oxycodone, Alprazolam, and a variety of illegal narcotics.

In pleading guilty, Champion, Hunt, and Johnson admitted that on March 30, 2021, they conspired to rob a pharmaceutical delivery van driver outside a pharmacy in Waldorf. The driver was placed in handcuffs and hit on the head with a firearm. Then the thieves drove the van back to Washington, D.C., with medications valued at more than $95,000.

At 2:46 p.m. on March 30, 2021, Metro Police officers found the stolen van on the 1500 block of 19th Street, SE.

At about 6 p.m. Prince George’s County police found discarded contents from the van, including numerous emptied bottles of oxycodone, in Bowie. Fingerprints found on the contents matched Champion and his co-defendants, and other items recovered had Champion’s DNA on them, a news release said.

That same afternoon, Champion posted a photo on Instagram depicting an assortment of oxycodone pills on a plate. He also sent a flurry of direct-messages to multiple Instagram accounts touting that the pills were for sale in Potomac Gardens.

On Oct. 6, 2021, at the residence where Champion was staying, police found a loaded Ruger 28mm-caliber pistol with an obliterated serial number, a Glock 9mm pistol loaded with 11 rounds; five Glock magazines of ammunition; assorted ammunition inside a shoebox; and about $37,280 in cash.

Law enforcement arrested Champion and his co-defendants on October 7, 2021.

Hunt was sentenced to 108 months in prison. Johnson was sentenced to 60 months in prison in Charles County for the armed carjacking, running concurrently to a 12-month sentence in this jurisdiction for drug conspiracy.

Lavender was not alleged to have had a role in the robbery and was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his role in the drug conspiracy.