Four Charlotte Men Sentenced for Crack Conspiracy
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Four Charlotte men were sentenced on Wednesday, September 26, 2012 in U.S. District Court for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
Wayne L. Dixie, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Charlotte Field Division, and Chief Rodney D. Monroe of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) are joining U.S. Attorney Tompkins in making today's announcement.
Carlos Wright, 29, Jamie Wright, 28, Demond Slade, 28 and Jamichael McClure, 29, all of Charlotte, were sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr. Carlos Wright was sentenced to serve 176 months in prison, to be followed by four years of supervised release. Jamie Wright was also sentenced to serve 176 months in prison and eight years of supervised release. Slade was sentenced to 175 months in prison and eight years of supervised release, and McClure was sentenced to 151 months in prison and five years of supervised release. A fifth codefendant, Cheron Holt, 28, also of Charlotte, was sentenced in April 2012 to serve 36 months in prison and two years of supervised release.
A federal criminal indictment charged the defendants in October 2010 with conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine over a nine year period from 2000 to 2009. According to filed court documents and court proceedings, all five co-defendants were significant street-level dealers of crack cocaine, operating numerous "crack houses" or "trap houses" on Rosslyn Avenue, Gregg Street, Seldon Avenue, Gardner Avenue and Bacon Avenue in Charlotte. Court records indicate that customers would frequent these locations at all times of the day and night to purchase crack cocaine from the defendants. Testimony at the sentencing hearing of defendant Holt established that over the course of the conspiracy, Holt was responsible for the distribution of at least a kilo of crack cocaine, and the Wright brothers, Slade and McClure were responsible for the distribution of at least 20 kilos.
The defendants have been in local federal custody in the Western District of North Carolina since their arrests in late 2010. Upon designation of a federal facility, each defendant will be transferred into custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
The investigation was led by CMPD and ATF. The prosecution for the government was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin Zolot and George Guise of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte.
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