Jamaican National And Leader Of Drug Conspiracy Is Sentenced To 27 Years In Prison For Trafficking Methamphetamine

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Today, Chief U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney sentenced Basil Lanas Noble, 50, a Jamaican national residing in Palm Springs, Florida, to 27 years in prison and five years of supervised release on drug trafficking conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy charges, announced Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. 

According to filed court documents and today’s sentencing hearing, from at least 2017 to November 2018, Noble was the leader of a drug conspiracy responsible for trafficking large amounts of narcotics in and around Mecklenburg County.  Noble and his co-conspirators received the drugs from a supply source in Mexico.  According to court records and statements made in court, when law enforcement arrested Noble in November 2018, they seized approximately 1.4 kilograms of methamphetamine from inside his vehicle.  Law enforcement also recovered one kilogram of cocaine and one kilogram of heroin, as well as three firearms and a bulletproof vest, from a residence that Noble maintained for drug trafficking purposes. Court records show that the conspiracy was also responsible for laundering the drug proceeds and sending the money back to the supply source in Mexico.

Noble previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine; distribution and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine; and money laundering conspiracy.

Noble will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.  All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole. 

This case is as part of an ongoing investigation by the Wester District’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) that has resulted in the federal arrest and prosecution of more than 200 methamphetamine traffickers and the seizure of more than 100 pounds of methamphetamine, $1,000,000 in United States currency and more than 60 firearms.  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 drug trafficking organizations and coordinating the necessary law enforcement entities and resources to disrupt or dismantle the targeted criminal organization and seize their assets.

In making today’s announcement U.S. Attorney Murray thanked the investigators from the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations and Huntersville Police Department, as well as the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, North Carolina State Highway Patrol, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement, the Gastonia Police Department, the Gaston County Police Department, the Mooresville Police Department, the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office, the Hickory Police Department, the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office, the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office, the Iredell Count Sheriff’s Office, the Alexander County Sheriff’s Office, the Boone Police Department, the Mocksville Police Department, the Cornelius Police Department, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, and the Mint Hill Police Department for their assistance in this investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven R. Kaufman of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.