Career Offender Is Sentenced To 13 Years In Prison On Drug Charges

Asheville -- Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of North Carolina

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, June 18, 2020
Career Offender Is Sentenced To 13 Years In Prison On Drug Charges
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray announced today that Tristan August Fleming, 32, of Hendersonville, N.C., was sentenced to 13 years in prison on drug charges.  In addition to the prison term imposed, Fleming was ordered to serve five years under court supervision upon completion of his prison term. 

Ronnie Martinez, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Charlotte, and Tommy D. Coke, Inspector in Charge of the Atlanta Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which oversees Charlotte, join U.S. U.S. Attorney Murray in making today’s announcement.

Court records show that, in May 2018, Belgian Customs Officers intercepted a package addressed to “Taylor McKnight” that contained suspected narcotics, including MDMA, cocaine, ketamine, and LSD. Law enforcement determined that the address on the package was that of a packing and shipping business located in Asheville. After retrieving the illegal substances, law enforcement in the United States arranged a controlled delivery of the package. On June 11, 2018, Fleming entered the shipping business in Asheville and claimed the package. Law enforcement arrested Fleming shortly thereafter. Following a search of his vehicle, law enforcement located drugs in a hidden compartment in Fleming’s vehicle, a wallet containing multiple fraudulent driver’s licenses, and other drug paraphernalia. Elsewhere in the vehicle, law enforcement recovered thousands of dosages of LSD, and $1,020 in drug proceeds.

On October 22, 2019, Fleming pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute narcotics. Based on multiple prior drug trafficking convictions, Fleming was sentenced as a career offender.

In making today’s announcement, U.S. Attorney Murray thanked HSI and USPIS for leading the investigation, and commended the North Carolina Highway Patrol for their assistance with this investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Pritchard, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville, prosecuted the case.