A Connelly Springs man will spend 10 years in prison after being convicted in federal court on Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell sentenced Sebastian LeFevers, 29, of Connelly Springs, to a 10-year prison stint that will be followed by five years of supervised release for trafficking methamphetamine, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
According to filed court documents and court proceedings, as early as February 2018, law enforcement began investigating LeFevers for trafficking methamphetamine, according to a release from King’s office. The Burke County Sheriff’s Office arrested LeFevers in April 2018 after a traffic stop and the execution of search warrants at two Connelly Springs homes, according to a previous News Herald story.
The April 16, 2018, story says Officers found “several ounces” of methamphetamine and “several pounds” of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Cash and firearms also were discovered in the searches.
People are also reading…
The release from King’s office said over the course of the investigation of LeFevers, law enforcement used a confidential source to arrange the purchase of methamphetamine from him. LeFevers was arrested when he came to an agreed upon location to finalize the drug transaction, the release said.
At the time of the arrest, law enforcement recovered 3 ounces of 100% pure methamphetamine from LeFevers.
According to court documents, law enforcement obtained search warrants for LeFevers’s residence and a trailer, from which they seized nearly 2 kilograms of marijuana packaged in four vacuum-sealed bundles, a vacuum sealer, plastic baggies and digital scale, all for packaging and distributing narcotics; four firearms and ammunition; and more than $3,500 in drug proceeds, according to the release from King’s office.
Over the course of the investigation, law enforcement determined that LeFevers was responsible for trafficking more than 13 kilograms of methamphetamine in Catawba County and the surrounding counties, the release said. On March 30, 2022, LeFevers pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, it said.
LeFevers will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility, according to the release.
King thanked the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, the Watauga County Sheriff’s Office, the Burke County Sheriff’s Office and the Hickory Police Department for their investigation of the case.
Assistant United States Attorney Taylor G. Stout of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.
