James Otis Davis Jr., 33, of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, is headed to federal prison for 180 months after being sentenced on charges tied to a multi-year fentanyl and heroin trafficking operation that flooded Nash County with deadly drugs. Davis was also sentenced to five years of supervised release following his prison term, the Department of Justice announced today in Wilmington, N.C.
Court documents reveal Davis pleaded guilty on September 21, 2021, to conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute 1,000 grams or more of heroin, along with a quantity of fentanyl. He also admitted to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime—charges stemming from a series of law enforcement operations between 2019 and 2020.
The investigation began in July 2019, when federal agents identified Davis as a key player selling heroin and fentanyl out of hotel rooms in Rocky Mount. On September 16, 2019, a controlled buy led agents to execute a search warrant at one such room. Inside, they found Davis with his 8-month-old child, along with 33 bindles of heroin and fentanyl, cocaine, a digital scale, cash, and a loaded .380 caliber handgun.
Two more controlled purchases occurred on May 6 and June 4, 2020. The second buy culminated in another raid—this time seizing 14.52 grams of heroin, additional cocaine, and a 9mm handgun from Davis’s hotel room. Then on July 2, 2020, a traffic stop of Davis’s vehicle turned up six more bindles of heroin and fentanyl, sealing the case against him.
Davis admitted to trafficking more than a kilogram of heroin over approximately six years—a lethal volume tied to the opioid crisis devastating communities across Eastern North Carolina. His case was prosecuted under the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Take Back North Carolina Initiative, aimed at dismantling violent drug networks and restoring safety in high-crime areas.
G. Norman Acker, III, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, confirmed the sentence. The Nash County Sheriff’s Office led the investigation, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott A. Lemmon handling prosecution. Case details are available through the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or PACER under case number 5:20-CR-538-M-1.
RELATED: James Otis Davis Jr. Gets 15 Years for Fentanyl, Heroin Trafficking
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Key Facts
- State: North Carolina
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Weapons|Organized Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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