RALEIGH – A Wayne County drug trafficker was sentenced last week to 480 months in prison for conspiracy and trafficking significant quantities of methamphetamine. The lengthy sentence was imposed due to his previous criminal history and the evidence tying him to the murder, dismemberment, and disposal of a confidential informant during the course of the investigation.
On August 29, 2024, Tamarcus Shaquan Ellis, age 34, was convicted by a federal jury for one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and two counts of distribution of five grams or more of methamphetamine and aiding and abetting. Ellis is facing state charges of first-degree murder and concealment of body.
“We won’t tolerate drug traffickers using violence, surveillance, and intimidation to dodge accountability and undermine the safety and dignity of American communities,” said U.S. Attorney Michael F. Easley, Jr. “Ellis’ large-scale trafficking and ties to the gruesome murder of an informant – dismembered, wrapped in a tarp, and set on fire – have put him in federal prison for the next forty years. This U.S. Attorney’s Office is home to one of the most aggressive counter-narcotics teams in the nation. We won’t flinch or be intimidated by drug traffickers, here or abroad, using violence to protect their turf. Victims and their families deserve it and the well-being of our community demands it.”
“The level of violence uncovered in this investigation was disturbing and bringing an end to this network of drugs, crime, and intimidation was a top priority,” said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Special Agent in Charge Bennie Mims. “ATF and our law enforcement partners are proud to know that this dangerous individual is no longer a threat to our community.”
“The successful federal prosecution of this dangerous individual demonstrates the unwavering commitment of law enforcement to protect our community from violence and the devastation caused by drugs. Together with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, we will continue to pursue justice for victims and ensure that those who bring harm to our city are held accountable,” said Goldsboro Police Chief Michael West.
According to court documents and other information presented in court, the ATF was investigating Ellis as part of an operation targeting crystal methamphetamine dealers operating in Goldsboro and Jacksonville in early 2021. By late March 2021, the ATF had arrested a number of high-level methamphetamine traffickers and began targeting Ellis’ drug trafficking organization.
Over the course of multiple months in the Spring of 2021, investigators used a confidential source to make controlled purchases of methamphetamine from Ellis’ organization. Due to the number of takedowns of other methamphetamine traffickers in February and March of 2021, Ellis went to great lengths to avoid direct involvement in the drug transactions through his use of low-level underlings in his organization to deliver the drugs while he monitored the drug deal from nearby. In addition to counter-surveilling buy locations for law enforcement presence, Ellis made last minute changes to the buy location in order to limit the risk of detection. In one instance, Ellis changed the location from Goldsboro to LaGrange, which is approximately ten miles away. At trial, the Government presented evidence that Ellis’s cell phone hit various cell phone towers en route to LaGrange during this drug deal. The underlings testified at trial that Ellis supplied them with drugs for the delivery to the confidential source.
In a sentencing memorandum supporting the imposition of a life sentence and at the sentencing hearing, prosecutors outlined evidence related to Ellis’s role in the dismemberment and disposal of the body of the confidential source used in the case. According to the details of the memorandum and evidence presented at sentencing, the torso of a woman’s body was dumped in the driveway of a residence on Bright Street in Goldsboro just before midnight on May 24, 2021. The torso, which had been set on fire, was determined to be a confidential source used to make controlled purchases from Ellis.
Review of video footage showed Ellis’s white Ford Ranger pickup truck entering the driveway of the residence with the torso wrapped in a tarp in the back of the pickup truck. Footage from a nearby pole camera shows what appears to be Ellis and another individual dragging the tarp from the truck and dumping the torso on the ground. The pickup truck then traveled to Ellis’s loft apartment in downtown Goldsboro. At approximately 12:33 a.m. on May 24, 2021, a person believed to be Ellis is seen leaving his loft apartment, entering the Tahoe he used during countersurveillance, returning to the Bright Street location, dumping an accelerate on the torso and lighting it on fire. The Tahoe is then shown on downtown security cameras returning the Ellis’s loft.
Later that day, Ellis was stopped driving the white pickup, which had a unique sticker on its back window, seen in the surveillance video. After obtaining a search warrant, officers with the Goldsboro Police Department searched Ellis’ residence and a Rap Studio he owned. At the residence, they found two loaded guns and over $63,000 in cash. At the Rap Studio, they found a large amount of human blood and a bullet lodged in the floor. The DNA profile of the blood was linked to the deceased confidential source.
This prosecution was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launders, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
The ATF and the Goldsboro Police Department investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dennis Duffy and Evelyn Yarborough prosecuted the case.
Good ridance!