Pubdate: Mon, 12 Jan 2009
Source: Star-News (NC)
Copyright: 2009 Wilmington Morning Star
Contact:  http://www.wilmingtonstar.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/500
Author: Veronica Gonzalez

PARTNERSHIP CRACKS DOWN ON DRUG ACTIVITY

Drug dealers beware: If you've got local Assistant District Attorney 
Tim Severo prosecuting you, you're probably facing significant time 
in the slammer. It's been more than two years since Severo was also 
designated a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, and since then, 
countless drug dealers have been prosecuted under federal laws and 
are serving federal time. New Hanover County District Attorney Ben 
David and U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding will highlight the 
success of the partnership and talk about its future at a news 
conference Monday.

Severo's position has been funded by the Governor's Crime Commission 
and the New Hanover County Commissioners, according to the U.S. 
Attorney's office. The federal system allows prosecutors to 
aggressively pursue drug dealers and criminal organizations as well 
as net stiffer sentences, Severo said. "You can systematically go 
after an organization and dismantle an entire organization," he said. 
"The best handle you're going to get is going after the entire group, 
not just a portion of it." Recently, an operation dubbed Seven Day 
Ground netted the imprisonment of 11 people. The investigation has 
uncovered criminal drug organizations in Atlanta, Georgia, and Texas 
responsible for importing more than 300 kilograms of cocaine and a 
kilogram of heroin into eastern North Carolina and Virginia, 
according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

The final defendant, Michael Alexis Covington, a 41-year-old 
Wilmington resident, was sentenced Jan. 6 to six years in prison for 
buying cocaine and selling crack as well as illegally possessing a 
handgun and shotgun as a felon. In November, a 41-year-old cocaine 
supplier who tried to bribe a cop with drug money while moving drugs 
from Houston to Wilmington was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Gratiniano Castillo, who had snuck into the country illegally, 
pleaded guilty to conspiracy and cocaine distribution mainly in 
Wilmington from 2005 until his arrest in July 2007.

Other people caught up in the sting, Lacy Jervay Tate and Shahzan 
Mathur, both received 20 years in prison while Samuel Cofield was 
sentenced to almost 18 years in prison, according to the U.S. 
Attorney's office.

Cofield was accused of conspiring with Castillo to move drugs, 
according to federal documents. Additionally, Shawn Lamar Vincent, 
was sentenced to more than two years in prison for conspiring to 
deliver cocaine, while Shannon Cantrell Bullard was also sentenced to 
five years in federal prison for the same offense, federal court documents show.
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