Wilmington man facing years in prison for drug trafficking

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A 29-year-old man pled guilty in New Hanover County Superior Court last week to one county of trafficking MDMA and one county trafficking LSD after a motion to suppress evidence in his case was denied.

Sean Ruffolo of Wilmington was sentenced by Judge J. Stanley Carmical to a minimum of just under 3 years (35 to 51 months) in the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction and also imposed upon the defendant the cumulative statutorily mandated fine of $50,000.

In May of 2021, officers from the Department of Homeland Security intercepted a package addressed to the defendant at his Carolina Beach address that contained 186.71 grams of MDMA.

Based on this discovery, detectives with the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office and the Carolina Beach Police Department arranged a controlled delivery of the package near Independence Mall in Wilmington.

After the defendant took custody of the package, officers arrested the defendant and then executed a search warrant on his apartment where they found in the defendant’s bedroom: 250 dosage units of LSD, a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun, 20.6 grams of DMT, 2.32 pounds of marijuana, and an additional 21.25 grams of MDMA.

“This case is a great example of how different law enforcement agencies on both the state and federal level can collaborate with one another to take down an international drug trafficker. I want to commend all the officers and detectives who worked together to bring about this result,” Assistant
District Attorney Brad Matthews said.