Shallotte Man Sentenced for Cocaine Base (Crack) Distribution

RALEIGH – The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Robert J. Higdon, Jr., announces that United States District Judge James C. Dever, III sentenced SPENCER LAMONT BRYANT, 33, of Shallotte, NC, today. BRYANT was sentenced to 210 months imprisonment and 5 years of supervised release. 

On August 20, 2019, BRYANT pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 280 grams or more of cocaine base (crack) and to distribution of a quantity of cocaine base.

In April, 2011, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in Wilmington, North Carolina and the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) identified BRYANT as a high-volume cocaine base (crack) supplier in the Brunswick County area.   With the assistance of several confidential sources of information (CI), officers conducted ten controlled purchases from BRYANT, seizing a total of 265.55 grams of cocaine base (crack) from BRYANT.

Officers also interviewed multiple witnesses who described BRYANT’s drug trafficking operation. Based on those interviews and the amounts seized by law enforcement directly from BRYANT between at least June 30, 2007, and March 22, 2019, BRYANT was held accountable for the distribution of at least 14 kilograms of crack.

This prosecution is part of an extensive investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).  OCDETF is a joint federal, state, and local cooperative approach to combat drug trafficking and is the nation’s primary tool for disrupting and dismantling major drug trafficking organizations, targeting national and regional level drug trafficking organizations, and coordinating the necessary law enforcement entities and resources to disrupt or dismantle the targeted criminal organization and seize their assets.

This case is part of the United States Attorney’s Office’s Take Back North Carolina Initiative.  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.  For additional information about this initiative, click here https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/tbnc.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office investigated this case.  Assistant United States Attorney Scott A. Lemmon prosecuted this case for the government.