A North Carolina man was sentenced on Friday for running a drug trafficking operation. Reshod Jamar Everett, 36, must spend 40 years in federal prison, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
Authorities said he ran the scheme out of an in-home daycare he operated with his wife, as well as other locations.
The ring landed on law enforcement radar starting with one of those other locations, authorities said.
Cops determined in 2018 he was dealing large amounts of illegal drugs from an apartment in Fayetteville. On July 16 of that year, agents did a traffic stop of a Cadillac driven by co-defendant Alvin Milton Davis, finding marijuana, cocaine, and a loaded handgun with an extended magazine, according to the DOJ.
Authorities executed a search warrant on the apartment in question, finding more than 36 pounds of marijuana, more than 300 grams of cocaine, and a loaded CZ Scorpion firearm, federal officials said.
Everett leased the apartment, with David as an authorized occupant, according to investigators. (Davis is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence.)
Authorities learned Everett’s primary residence was on Ronald Reagan Drive. He and his wife ran an in-home daycare center there, they said.
On July 17, 2018, agents got a search warrant for the residence and said they seized more than $65,000, eight guns, ammunition, and THC edibles.
There was more than 65 pounds of marijuana in a storage unit Everett used, according to officials.
Everett was responsible for more than five kilograms of cocaine and more than 1,700 kilograms of marijuana, authorities said.
“Evidence introduced at trial also showed that Everett attempted to engage in a variety of tactics to obstruct prosecutors and investigators,” the DOJ said. “These tactics included giving false testimony under oath, attempting to bribe or threaten others to give false testimony, utilizing gang members to intimidate witnesses, and engaging in an extensive social media campaign to falsely accuse the Fayetteville Police Department and Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office of wrongdoing.”
Everette told WRAL in an August 2019 report that he was innocent and had no knowledge of the drugs found at his home, though he acknowledged possessing tens of thousands of dollars found at his home. He asserted cops planted the drugs before serving the search warrant, and that officers were engaging in a publicity stunt.
“What else to make a great story but to put things in places, especially behind a daycare?” Everett told the outlet. “That makes it a great story.”
His first trial ended in a hung jury.
[Mugshot via Fayetteville Police Department]