RALEIGH – The United States Attorney for the Eastern
District of North Carolina, Robert J. Higdon, Jr., announced that Chief United
States District Judge Terrence W. Boyle sentenced JOHN MICKEY HARRIS, JR., 30,
of Wilmington, North Carolina to 120 months of imprisonment followed by 5 years
of supervised release.
On March 19, 2018, HARRIS entered a plea of guilty to
conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute a quantity of
heroin, and felon in possession of a firearm.
A joint investigation between the Wilmington Police
Department Gang Unit and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Safe Streets
Unit revealed that between October 2016 and January 2017, HARRIS and others
were responsible for the distribution of significant amounts of heroin in the
Wilmington, NC area.
From October 2016 through January of 2017, at the direction
of law enforcement, several undercover purchases of heroin were made from
HARRIS.
On April 11, 2017, law enforcement stopped a car in which
HARRIS was a passenger and found a small quantity of heroin. Law enforcement then searched a residence
associated with HARRIS in Wilmington, where they found 16 grams of heroin and
ammunition. During the course of this
investigation, the FBI discovered that following his arrest on these charges,
HARRIS directed someone to dispose of a 9mm handgun in the retention pond at
the Campus Edge Apartments near the campus of The University of North Carolina
Wilmington.
The New Hanover County Fire and Rescue dive team
subsequently located the handgun in the retention pond with the aid of a large
magnet. Ballistic testing confirmed that
the gun had been used in other crimes.
At the time he possessed this firearm, HARRIS had a prior federal
conviction for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
This case is part of the Take Back North Carolina Initiative
implemented by United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North
Carolina. This initiative emphasizes the
regional assignment of federal prosecutors to work with law enforcement and
District Attorney’s Offices on a sustained basis in those communities to reduce
the violent crime rate, drug trafficking, and crimes against law enforcement.
This investigation was conducted by the Wilmington Police
Department Gang Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Task
Force and the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Timothy M. Severo
handled the prosecution of this case for the government.
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