25 indicted for variety of offenses
By Staff Reports
Published in News on October 29, 2016 9:42 PM
The U.S. Department of Justice indicted 25 people from six eastern North Carolina counties, including one man from Dudley, on charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, continuing criminal enterprise, money laundering and various firearm offenses .
According to a press release, the indictment alleges that the defendants were part of a violent drug trafficking organization operating in and around Sampson County.
The Dudley man is Harry Thomas Oates Jr., 48. Suspects were indicted from Sampson, Bladen, Cumberland, Wake, Duplin and Wayne counties.
The case is considered a federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force criminal matter. It is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Sampson County Sheriff's Office, the Internal Revenue Service criminal investigations unit, the Jacksonville Police Department, the Onslow County Sheriff's Office, the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office, the U.S. Probation Office, the state Bureau of Investigation and the state departments of Revenue and Emergency Management.