Drug trafficker gets 8 years after jail escape attempt

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) –Montrille Dailey will spend at least 8 years in jail for a number of drug charges and an attempt to escape from jail.

Last week in New Hanover County Superior Court, Dailey, age 26 of New Hanover County, pled guilty to trafficking in heroin between 4 and 14 grams, conspiracy to traffic in Heroin between 4 and 14 grams, two counts of sale of heroin, attempted escape from a county jail and being a habitual felon.

The Honorable Ebern T. Watson sentenced Dailey to 96-128 months imprisonment.

In 2015 Dailey sold heroin to an informant assisting law enforcement. In October, a car in which Dailey was a passenger was stopped by the police for an expired registration. During the course of the traffic stop, a narcotics K-9 indicated that there were narcotics in the car. The Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Street Task Force began to assist in the investigation and discovered that the driver had approximately 9 grams of heroin in her pants. The investigation uncovered that Dailey handed the drugs to the driver while they were being stopped by the police. It was further discovered that Dailey and another passenger, who was not the driver of the car, had traveled to New York to acquire the heroin with the intention of bringing it back to North Carolina for distribution.

While being housed in the New Hanover County Jail on those charges, Dailey made an escape attempt by using the identity of his cell mate when the cell mate was due to be discharged from the facility. Jail personnel realized that the wrong inmate had come forward for release and returned Dailey to custody.

Officials confirmed through Dailey’s jail calls that this was not merely a mistake on his part but a calculated effort to escape the facility.