Eric Hall Convicted on Drug and Firearm Charges

A federal jury wasted no time convicting Jacksonville resident Eric Hall on multiple counts of drug and firearm violations following a two-day trial in Elizabeth City. Hall, already a convicted felon, was found guilty of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The case centers on February 19, 2016, when a Jacksonville Police Officer caught the unmistakable stench of marijuana wafting from a hotel room. After securing a search warrant, officers moved in and found Hall inside with 6 ounces of cocaine, a .45 caliber handgun, and $3,800 in cash—cash that prosecutors argued was consistent with drug proceeds.

That wasn’t the end of the evidence trail. On May 4, 2016, law enforcement executed a second search warrant at Hall’s residence outside Jacksonville. There, agents seized another handgun and two assault rifles—weapons that further sealed his fate under federal gun laws prohibiting felons from owning firearms.

The conviction is a direct hit in the federal government’s ongoing push under Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a nationwide initiative aimed at dismantling violent crime networks. The program, reinvigorated in October 2017 under former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, directs U.S. Attorney’s Offices to deploy targeted strategies to reduce gun violence and drug-related crime.

The investigation was a joint operation between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), the Jacksonville Police Department, and the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office. Their collaboration underscores the multi-agency effort to root out illegal narcotics and firearms in high-risk communities across Eastern North Carolina.

Assistant United States Attorney John Bennett prosecuted the case on behalf of the government. Hall is scheduled to be sentenced in approximately 90 days. With federal drug and firearm charges, he faces a lengthy mandatory minimum sentence, underscoring the stakes in the government’s war on street-level trafficking and illegal gun possession.

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