A Jacksonville drug kingpin who opened fire on a vehicle on I-95 in St. Johns County after being robbed of $45,000 in a botched drug deal has been sentenced to 35 years in federal prison.
Nathaniel Hatcher III, 30, learned his fate from U.S. District Judge Harvey Schlesinger after pleading guilty to a raft of serious charges in September 2025.
The court also ordered him to forfeit $2.2 million in drug proceeds.
“Hatcher and his drug crew planned and executed a brazen drive-by shooting in broad daylight on I-95, putting dozens of law-abiding Americans in danger of losing their lives,” said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Now, he will spend decades in federal prison where he can no longer terrorize the Jacksonville community thanks to the combined efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement partners who investigated and prosecuted this case.”
Prosecutors said Hatcher helmed a Jacksonville-based crew for nearly eight years, moving massive amounts of marijuana from Northern California to Northeast Florida.
The group smuggled their product on commercial flights, through the mail and by vehicle, officials said. They stored and packaged the greenery at short-term rentals in Jacksonville.
The violence that led to the lengthy sentence stemmed from a botched September 2023 marijuana deal in Jacksonville in which Hatcher and an associate brought roughly $45,000 in cash to buy drugs.
Instead, prosecutors said, the sellers took the money and fled.
Hatcher and members of his organization tracked and surveilled the suspected thieves over several weeks.
On Oct. 17, 2023, they followed one of the targets from downtown Jacksonville onto I-95 South. As traffic moved into St. Johns County, two vehicles boxed in the victim’s Mercedes sedan.
Prosecutors said Hatcher and another gunman squeezed off dozens of shots at their targets.
Deputies with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office recovered about 25 shell casings at the scene, officials said.
The driver was hit once and airlifted to a trauma center where he survived. A female passenger was showered in shattered glass.
