Wilmington woman sentenced to 14 years in prison for selling drugs

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A Wilmington woman was sentenced on Thursday to 14 years in prison for selling heroin and fentanyl.

According to court documents, Crystal Denise James, 30, was stopped by Wilmington Police Department officers on August 13, 2018 for speeding. Officers searched James and found several bindles of heroin in her front pocket. James reached into her back pockets and removed more bindles of heroin. A total of 57 bags of a heroin and fentanyl mixture were seized.

From April 25, 2019 to June 6, 2019, the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Department used a confidential informant to make three controlled purchases of heroin and a mixture of heroin acetyl fentanyl and fentanyl from James.

Following the June 6, 2019 controlled purchase, law enforcement searched James’ residence.

During the search, law enforcement found 5,639 bags of heroin (some of which contained acetyl fentanyl and fentanyl), cash, 86 grams of marijuana, a .22 caliber AR-15 style rifle and other manufacturing and packaging materials.