Career Offender Is Sentenced To Over 11 Years In Prison On Drug Charges

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray announced today that Ryan Eugene Farley, 31, of Catawba, N.C. was sentenced to 135 months in prison and four years of supervised release on federal drug charges. As a result of Farley’s multiple prior drug trafficking convictions, the Court today sentenced him as a career offender.

Robert J. Murphy, Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which oversees the Charlotte District Office, and Sheriff Donald G. Brown II, of the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office, join U.S. U.S. Attorney Murray in making today’s announcement.

According to filed court documents and court records, between April 2019 and March 2020, Farley distributed narcotics in Catawba County and elsewhere.  Court records show that on April 6, 2019, a deputy with the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office approached Farley for a traffic violation. Over the course of the encounter, law enforcement seized crack cocaine and $1,052 in drug proceeds from Farley. According to court records, on August 12, 2019, a Catawba County Sheriff’s Office deputy initiated a traffic stop of Farley’s vehicle in Claremont, North Carolina, in connection with an outstanding arrest warrant. Law enforcement recovered from Farley’s seized vehicle four clear plastic bags that contained what was later determined to be crack cocaine.  On March 3, 2020, law enforcement arrested Farley on a federal arrest warrant for the two aforementioned incidents. In addition to the previously seized narcotics, law enforcement also located at Farley’s residence additional crack cocaine, cash, a digital scale, and drug paraphernalia. On July 24, 2020, Farley pleaded guilty to three counts of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine.

In making today’s announcement, U.S. Attorney Murray thanked the DEA and the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office for their investigation of the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Hess, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte, prosecuted the case.