The United States Attorney’s Office today submitted a motion to preclude Antonio Tillmon’s claim of entrapment in his upcoming trial, in which jury selection is scheduled for October 24 in Greenville.
The other fourteen defendants in the case have already entered guilty pleas and are scheduled for sentencing next month.
United States Attorney John Brice in his motion said Tillmon was not recruited to join the drug trafficking organization by the government. Instead, he was recruited by a co-defendant.

The plan

Brice writes in the motion the FBI and North Carolina Eastern District Attorney’s Office conducted the reverse undercover operation “to flush out corrupt law enforcement officers in the Eastern District of North Carolina.”
During the course of the investigation, FBI undercover employees posed as members of a drug trafficking organization which transported narcotics and narcotics proceeds between Miami and New York. “The UCEs told the defendants that the DTO had recruited law enforcement officers in every state from Florida to New York to protect the DTO’s transport operations within the state’s borders and the DTO was expanding its North Carolina drug trafficking and money laundering operation.”

(See related story at this link)

The defendants assisted the organization in the transport of the purported cocaine and heroin, sometimes while armed, in exchange for cash payments.
“The undercover investigation was premised upon the DTO’s desire to recruit law enforcement in North Carolina to protect the DTO’s drug transport operations in North Carolina,” Brice wrote.

Recruitment

Lann Tjuan Clanton a former Weldon officer and correctional officer was the first defendant recruited and the only one recruited directly by the FBI. He was encouraged by the undercover
agents to recruit other law enforcement officers who would be willing to protect the transport of drugs and drug proceeds in exchange for payment.
Clanton subsequently recruited defendant Ikeisha Jacobs, who formerly worked with the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office, to join the organization.
Clanton and Jacobs were later assigned to lead their own teams, Brice wrote.

Tillmon recruitment

Jacobs recruited Tilmon, according to documents filed in the federal court record in July through August of 2014. “At the time of his recruitment, the defendant was employed as a police officer with the Windsor Police Department,” Brice wrote.
After Jacobs recruited Tillmon to join the operation, he met with the undercover employees and other co-defendants to learn the logistical details of the operation. “Jacobs remained in control of coordinating Tillmon’s appearance at each of the operations. At the time that she recruited Tillmon, and during the entirety of the operations, Jacobs did not know that she was
working with the FBI.”
Tillmon, the motion states, participated in three operations that moved 30 kilograms of purported heroin from North Carolina to Maryland.
He began work for the DTO in August, 2014 and continued to work for the organization until his arrest on April 30 of last year when he showed up to participate in a fourth operation. “The defendant carried a firearm to defend the drug transports during the second and third drug runs in which he participated.
“During the third drug run, he even provided an extra gun to one of his co-defendants when he learned that she was not carrying a gun. On the day of his arrest, he arrived to transport the purported drugs with five firearms and numerous rounds of ammunition.”