Armed Drug Trafficker Sentenced to 20 Years

Asheville -- February 21, 2022: Benjamin Dann Owens, 36, of Hayesville, North Carolina,
was found guilty of conspiring

to possess and distribute fentanyl, methamphetamine, oxycodone, and other narcotics as well as marijuana, according to U.S. Attorney Dena J. King for the Western District of North Carolina. She sentenced Owens to 312 months in prison and five years of supervised release February 2, 2023.

According to court records and hearings, a Clay County Sheriff's Office officer attempted to execute a traffic stop on Owens's vehicle on December 20, 2020, at around 2:55 a.m., for a number of moving violations. Owens ignored the order and started driving erratically at a high speed. Owens managed to elude law officers before leaving his car. When police identified and searched Owens's car, they discovered a number of weapons, ammunition, and knives in addition to methamphetamine, Oxycodone pills, and marijuana. Later that day, Owens was seen wandering the streets of Hayesville while toting a backpack. Owens ignored police officers who tried to apprehend him, threw the bag he was carrying into the surrounding woods, and escaped on foot. When law enforcement found the bag, they discovered additional weapons and ammo as well as more than 1,100 pills containing fentanyl, methamphetamine, marijuana, and other drugs.

Court records state that on December 21, 2020, authorities officers carried out search warrants at Owens' home and the property's outbuildings. Further drugs, weapons, and ammunition were seized by law authorities from the house. More than 135 marijuana plants were taken out of a shed on the property by law officials after they found a marijuana grow operation there.

Law police observed Owens operating a vehicle in Hayesville on January 7, 2021. Owens made a quick getaway. Owens was being pursued by law police when he eventually crashed his car and fled on foot into the Nantahala National Forest. Shortly after, Owens was taken into custody. Several loaded weapons, knives, and a large quantity of ammunition were found by law officials at the accident site. Owens has a long history of criminal convictions in North Carolina and Georgia for drug trafficking, unlawful gun possession, and other offenses.

On August 19, 2022, Owens entered a plea of guilty to conspiracy to manufacture 100 or more marijuana plants as well as conspiracy to distribute and possess with the purpose to distribute methamphetamine, fentanyl, Oxycodone, marijuana, MDA, and Suboxone. After a federal institution is designated, he will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons. He is still in federal custody.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Clay County Sheriff's Office, the Macon County Sheriff's Office, the Swain County Sheriff's Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives were all praised by U.S. Attorney King for their investigations into the case.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Kent of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte.

WNCTIMES by Marjorie Farrington