NEW BERN, N.C. – A federal jury convicted a Goldsboro man on three charges of trafficking methamphetamine. Tamarcus Shaquan Ellis, age 34, faces up to life in prison when sentenced in December.
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were 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.
In addition to counter-surveilling buy locations for law enforcement presence, Ellis also made last minute changes to the buy location in order to limit the risk of detection. Ellis also used low-level underlings in his organization to deliver the drugs while he monitored the drug deal from nearby. The underlings testified at trial that Ellis supplied them with drugs for the delivery to the confidential source.
Ellis was convicted of a conspiracy to distribute and posses with the intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and two counts of distributing five grams of or more of methamphetamine.
This investigation was 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.
Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Louise W. Flanagan accepted the verdict. The ATF and ATF Task Force Officers from the Goldsboro Police Department and the Jacksonville Police Department investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nick Hartigan and Dennis Duffy prosecuted the case.
