RALEIGH - The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Robert J. Higdon, Jr., announced that today in federal court, Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever, III sentenced JEREL LEON JORDAN, 27, of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, to 195 months of imprisonment followed by 5 years of supervised release.
JORDAN was named in a three-count Superseding Indictment on April 18, 2017. On Aug. 21, 2017, JORDAN pled not guilty. During a bench trial on Dec. 1, 2017, JORDAN was found guilty of Possession with Intent to Distribute 28 Grams or More of Cocaine Base, Possession of a Firearm in Furtherance of a Drug-Trafficking Crime, and Possession of a Firearm by a Felon.
JORDAN distributed cocaine and cocaine base (hereinafter, crack cocaine) in the Elizabeth City and Pasquotank County areas of North Carolina from at least 2015 until his arrest on Dec. 28, 2016. Multiple informants provided law enforcement with information to substantiate that JORDAN was trafficking crack cocaine from his home and was known to carry a firearm.
Law enforcement authorities then began surveilling JORDAN’S home and movements. As a routine, JORDAN left his residence in Elizabeth City each day, traveled to various locations in and around Elizabeth City where he made several hand-to-hand drug deliveries to various individuals known to be drug dealers, and then returned to his residence in Elizabeth City.
On Dec. 28, 2016, law enforcement obtained a search warrant for JORDAN’S residence. Later that day, during the execution of the search warrant at JORDAN’S home, law enforcement authorities found: (1) a.45 caliber handgun loaded with seven rounds of ammunition; (2) 226.25 grams of cocaine; (3) 156.05 grams of crack cocaine; (4) 41 rounds of ammunition; (5) digital scales; (6) a money counter; (7) two gun cases; and (8) two boxes of sandwich bags.
JORDAN immediately provided a statement in which he advised he began selling street-level quantities of crack cocaine when he was 13 or 14 years old. He stated that he “stepped up" his drug activities in early 2016 when he began purchasing and selling one-half kilogram of crack cocaine each month. However, JORDAN added that there were months when he sold as much as one kilogram of crack cocaine (6.5 kilograms of crack cocaine).
The Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office, Elizabeth City Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF") conducted the criminal investigation of this case. Assistant United States Attorney Melissa Belle Kessler handled the prosecution of this case for the United States
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
