Joseph Anthony Vaught, Conspiracy to Distribute Cocaine, North Carolina 2019

Joseph Anthony Vaught, 29, of Wilmington, is headed to federal prison for more than 12 years after being caught in an ATF sting that exposed a violent gang’s drug and robbery schemes. U.S. District Judge James C. Dever, III, handed down a 150-month sentence on Tuesday, followed by five years of supervised release, closing the book on a high-risk undercover operation that spanned nearly a year.

Vaught pled guilty on January 22, 2019, to conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, and to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He was the final defendant sentenced in the case, joining five co-defendants whose sentences ranged from 60 to 240 months behind bars.

The operation, led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Wilmington Police, began in December 2016. Using a wired apartment, undercover agents, and a confidential informant, authorities conducted roughly three-dozen controlled buys of cocaine, crack, heroin, firearms, and even counterfeit currency from the gang network. The target: Victor Dorm, a leader of a Bloods subset operating in Wilmington.

When ATF learned the gang was planning violent robberies, agents flipped the script—setting up a fake stash house they claimed belonged to a Mexican drug cartel. The bait: eight to ten kilograms of cocaine guarded by two armed men. Dorm took it. He confirmed his crew, including Vaught, was ready to hit the location. On August 29, 2017, Vaught and co-defendant Sylvester Lorenzo Hooper, Jr., arrived armed with handguns, ready to rob what they believed was a cartel stash house.

The trap was sprung. Instead of a drug vault, they walked into a federal takedown. Evidence from wiretaps, surveillance, and the controlled operations built an airtight case. Hooper was later sentenced to 204 months; Dorm got 240 months. James Flowers received 120 months, Eugene Telphia Grady, Jr., got 60, and Rufus Lamar Parker was sentenced to 78 months—all on related drug and firearm charges.

“This was not just a drug case—it was a network built on violence, greed, and the illusion of power,” said U.S. Attorney Robert J. Higdon, Jr. “ATF and local officers dismantled it with precision.” Vaught now begins his 150-month term, a final toll for a crime that never happened—but one that exposed a very real underworld.

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