Raleigh Man Sentenced to 48 Months for Firearm Offense

RALEIGH – The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Robert J. Higdon, Jr., announced that today, LYCURTIS QUAMAE LEON THOMPSON, 25, of Raleigh, was sentenced by United States District Judge James C. Dever, III for felon in possession of a firearm.  Judge Dever sentenced THOMPSON to 48 months’ imprisonment followed by 3 years of supervised release. 

THOMPSON was charged in a one-count Indictment on June 6, 2018, and pleaded guilty on August 23, 2018, to felon in possession of a firearm. 

On December 28, 2017, officers of the Raleigh Police Department conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle that THOMPSON was driving.  After observing THOMPSON making quick movements in the vehicle, officers searched him and found a loaded magazine, a digital scale, and money.  Inside the vehicle’s glove box officers found a .45 caliber handgun and a jar containing marijuana and cocaine.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.   Since 2017 the United States Department of Justice has reinvigorated the PSN program and has targeted violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.

That effort has been implemented through the Take Back North Carolina Initiative of The 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.

The investigation of this case was conducted by the Raleigh Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF).