CHARLOTTE, N.C. – U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell sentenced Savonte Watkins, 46, of Charlotte, to 42 months in prison on drug charges yesterday, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Judge Bell also ordered Watkins to serve three years under court supervision after...

ASHEVILLE, NC – U.S. Attorney Dena J. King announced today that Benjamin Dann Owens, 36, of Hayesville, N.C., was sentenced to 312 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, methamphetamine, Oxycodone, and other narcotics as...

STATESBORO, GA: A newly unsealed federal indictment charges nearly three dozen defendants for their involvement in a drug trafficking conspiracy centered in south Georgia and reaching into the Caribbean. The primary conspiracy charge in USA v. Morales-Jimenez et. al, dubbed Operation Carpet Ride, carries a statutory minimum penalty of 10...

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...

MACON, GA - Thirteen defendants have been sentenced to terms of up to 15 years in prison after an extensive operation that targeted a middle Georgia drug trafficking conspiracy. Eight men and four women were indicted in February 2021 under Operation Breaking the Bond, an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Today, Chief U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger sentenced James Julius Lumpkin, of Sevierville, Tennessee, to 156 months in prison and five years of supervised release for drug trafficking, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. U.S. Attorney King is joined in...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Justin De Neko Cunningham, 27, of Rock Hill, South Carolina, has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute a quantity of fentanyl. Evidence presented to the court showed that, through an investigation into a...

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- The leader of a conspiracy that used forged prescriptions to obtain and sell large amounts of highly addictive opioids has been sentenced to federal prison. Raheem Hardy, 29, of Decatur, Georgia, was sentenced to 55 months in prison after pleading guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent...

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- A former Garden City, Ga., clinic owner and CEO has admitted to laundering money in connection with a notorious “pill mill” doctor who illegally dispensed massive amounts of controlled substances. Jamesetta Whipple-Duncan, 58, of Savannah, pled guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of money laundering...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Chief U. S. District Judge Martin Reidinger handed down a lengthy sentence today to a Hendersonville, N.C., man convicted of trafficking cocaine, fentanyl, prescription pills and other narcotics in and around Henderson County, announced Acting U.S. Attorney William T. Stetzer. On December 9, 2020, Butler pleaded guilty...