Raleigh man gets decade-long federal sentence in fentanyl trafficking case

A Raleigh fentanyl dealer who also sold a Glock 36 handgun will spend 12 years in federal prison after prosecutors said the case exposed a repeat pattern of drug dealing, guns and flight from police in Wake County.

Jeremy Hinton was sentenced April 14, 2026, by Chief U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II after pleading guilty April 4, 2025. Prosecutors said the Raleigh Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arranged two controlled fentanyl purchases from Hinton. During the second buy, authorities said, Hinton also sold the handgun. When officers later moved to arrest him, he fled in a car chase and later sped more than 80 miles per hour while trying to get away.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina said Hinton was sentenced as a career offender because of his criminal history. His prior convictions included breaking and entering, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, selling cocaine, possessing drugs with intent to sell, and shooting a gun into an occupied home. U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle said Hinton had eight felony convictions for violent crimes in state court, underscoring the government’s view of the case as fentanyl plus guns rather than a one-time narcotics arrest. The federal case is listed as Case No. 5:23-CR-365-M-RJ, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Casey L. Peaden handled the prosecution.

The sentence removes one more repeat offender from Raleigh streets, but it does not change the fact that fentanyl remains one of the most lethal drugs moving through Wake County. North Carolina health officials say more than 44,500 people across the state died from drug overdoses from 2000 through 2024, with about eight North Carolinians dying each day in 2024. State estimates put overdose deaths in 2025 at 2,731.

Wake County’s fentanyl-positive death data show the toll remains immediate for families here. The county recorded 75 fentanyl-positive deaths year-to-date in 2024, down from 111 during the same period in 2023, according to state medical examiner toxicology data. Officials note those figures are provisional and that a fentanyl-positive result does not necessarily mean fentanyl was the ultimate cause of death. Even so, the numbers show why federal prosecutors are treating local fentanyl trafficking as a public-safety case as much as a criminal one.