A man from Raleigh has been sentenced to over eight years in federal prison for trafficking fentanyl across Eastern North Carolina. Joshua Vines, 40, confessed to conspiring to distribute more than 400 grams of fentanyl and pleaded guilty earlier this year.
Court records and evidence presented during sentencing reveal that on October 25, 2023, agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) conducted surveillance on a vehicle registered to co-defendant Nigel Gray. The vehicle was parked outside a Dollar General in Elizabeth City when passenger and co-defendant Omar Cardenas got into another car. Both vehicles subsequently left the area.
Law enforcement stopped the car driven by Vines in Nashville, NC. During the stop, Vines contacted Gray seeking the car’s registration details. A trained K-9 unit alerted officers to the vehicle leading to a search where they found approximately 30,000 pills containing fentanyl or para-fluorofentanyl weighing 1.5 kilograms along with an additional kilogram of fentanyl powder. Vines had informed Gray via text about their detention and sought consent for a vehicle search. The group intended to distribute the drugs in Raleigh.
Gray and Cardenas have already received sentences in federal court for their involvement in the conspiracy.
Vines has previous felony convictions including discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle, heroin trafficking, and cocaine trafficking by transportation.
The announcement was made by Daniel P. Bubar, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina after sentencing by U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III. The investigation involved HSI, FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations, Raleigh Police Department, Nashville Police Department, Pitt County Sheriff’s Office, and Greenville Regional Drug Task Force while Assistant U.S. Attorneys Timothy Severo and Katherine Englander prosecuted the case.
