CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Today, U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney sentenced Lawrence Jeffrey Brooks, 41, of Mount Holly, N.C., to 396 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release, and Dustin Blair Henry, 39, of Charlotte, to 235 months in prison and five years of supervised release for...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – U.S. Attorney Dena J. King announced today that Jose Francisco Vasquez-Rico, 22, and Andrew Estiben Reyna-Rodriguez, 23, both of Charlotte, were sentenced to 168 months and 51 months in prison, respectively, for trafficking fentanyl and methamphetamine. U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell also ordered the defendants to...

ALBANY, Ga. – A Florida resident with multiple prior state felony convictions for distributing methamphetamine pleaded guilty to a federal controlled substance charge after being caught with approximately eight kilograms of the illegal drug during a routine traffic stop when his co-defendant attempted to escape from authorities with the bag...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – U.S. Attorney Dena J. King announced today that Santuron Cureton, 40, of Rock Hill, South Carolina, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and four years of supervised release for illegal gun possession and drug offenses. According to filed documents and court proceedings, between April and July...

AUGUSTA, GA: An Atlanta-area man has been sentenced to federal prison after admitting his role in a major drug trafficking conspiracy that funneled cocaine and other drugs through Atlanta to the Waynesboro, Ga., area. Chadric Antonio Rhaney, a/k/a “Chad,” 42, of Powder Springs, Ga., was sentenced to 88 months in...

FLORENCE, SOUTH CAROLINA — Kimo Takarra Felton, 42, of Conway, was sentenced this week to more than 11 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to being a member of a 35-member conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. Evidence presented at the sentencing...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Today, U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell sentenced Ronald Keith Scronce, 65, of Lincolnton, N.C., to 168 months in prison and five years of supervised release for trafficking methamphetamine, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. According to filed documents and...

WAYCROSS, Ga. – The lead defendant in a Waycross-area fentanyl and heroin trafficking operation has now pled guilty, joining the other five defendants who admitted their roles in the conspiracy. Eric Lashawn Hayes, a/k/a “Pee Wee,” 28, of Blackshear, Ga., awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to Possession of a Firearm...

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — Ralph Allison Pitt, Jr., 46, of Columbia, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possessing with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Evidence presented to the Court showed that, on December 6...

BRUNSWICK, GA – A newly unsealed federal indictment charges 14 defendants in a South Georgia drug trafficking conspiracy alleged to have been directed from inside a Georgia state prison. The indictment in Operation Pope’s G.O.A.L., an Organized Crime Drug Trafficking Task Force investigation, alleges the drug trafficking conspiracy distributed methamphetamine...