Onslow County Drug Dealer Sentenced in Federal Court

RALEIGH, N.C. – A Jacksonville woman was sentenced to 180 months in prison for trafficking methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, cocaine base (crack), and marijuana, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of such drug trafficking crime.  On December 8, 2021, Ramona Lopez pled guilty to the charges.

According to court documents and other information presented in court, the Jacksonville Police Department received complaints from management of a local hotel regarding Lopez’s selling of narcotics from a room at the hotel.  After law enforcement surveillance revealed that Lopez was using the hotel as the base of operation for her drug trafficking organization, a search warrant was executed on the hotel room and law enforcement recovered 122 grams of methamphetamine, 107 grams of heroin, a quantity of fentanyl, 73 doses of Ecstasy, 7 grams of cocaine, written instructions for cooking methamphetamine, $6,636,and a loaded Taurus 9 millimeter handgun, later determined to have been stolen from Virginia.

Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III. The Jacksonville Police Department, Onslow County Sheriff’s Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis M. Duffy prosecuted the case.

Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for Case No. 7:21-cr-00038-D.

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