Asheville Man Sentenced to Almost 8 Years

Asheville -- February 22, 2024: Harold Gene Roberts, 48, of Asheville, was sentenced on Wednesday, February 22, 2024, subsequent to his guilty plea on multiple counts of felony opium/fentanyl trafficking and other associated felony narcotics charges.

Judge Alan Thornburg of the Superior Court of North Carolina ordered Roberts to pay a $50,000 fine and serve an active term of 70-93 months in the custody of the North Carolina Division of Adult Corrections.

Following an investigation into reports of illegal drug activity on Buckeye Access Road in Swannanoa on Tuesday, May 26, 2020, undercover Asheville Police Department officers established communication with Roberts via cellphone through a recorded line. Roberts disclosed explicitly that he had acquired oxycodone pills valued at $1,600. Roberts subsequently presented undercover officers with a package of small tablets that resembled Percocet 30s in color and size, in return for $1,600 in cash. Upon examination of the tablets, the North Carolina State Crime Laboratory identified 5.6 grams of schedule II oxycodone.

Agents of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations, detectives of the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office, and detectives of the Asheville Police Department executed a search warrant on Buckeye Access Road in Swannanoa on Thursday, May 28, 2020.

400 oxycodone pills, 15 hydrocodone pills, 25 sublingual tablets (two of which were broken in half), 1 suboxone pill, and 10 THC vape cartridges were seized by investigators during the search. Later, the North Carolina State Crime Laboratory analyzed the substances and discovered more than six grams of Schedule II hydrocodone and over forty grams of Schedule II oxycodone.

WNCTimes