Clarkton man sentenced to over 5 years in prison for heroin trafficking
BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A Bladen County man has been sentenced to prison for trafficking heroin.
41-year-old Justin Steele of Clarkton pled guilty on Monday in New Hanover County Superior Court to one count of trafficking heroin by transportation and one count of possession with intent to sell and deliver schedule a controlled substance.
Steele was sentenced to the mandatory term of 70 to 93 months in the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction and also imposed the statutorily mandated $50,000 fine.
On April 5, 2022, a confidential informant working on behalf of the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office arranged to buy 400 bindles of heroin from the defendant, whom he had purchased large quantities of heroin from before. The defendant stated over the phone that he was going to bring
the heroin to the confidential informant’s residence on Kerr Avenue in Wilmington.
About 90 minutes after that call the defendant arrived at the informant’s residence in a red in color Honda Accord. Once the defendant’s vehicle was parked, Vice and Narcotics Detectives from the Sheriff’s Office detained the defendant and searched the Accord. Inside the vehicle, detectives found 400 bindles of heroin, and on the defendant’s person, officers found $1,730 of U.S. currency.
Later testing conducted by the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Crime Lab confirmed the substance in the seized bindles contained a mixture of heroin and fentanyl. The defendant also has a lengthy criminal history including prior narcotics and firearms offenses.
