Suspected meth dealer had homemade pipe bombs ready for the ‘snitch’ in NC, feds say
Law enforcement made an unusual discovery inside a safe at one of two homes they searched last year on a rural stretch of road in Eastern North Carolina — a homemade pipe bomb, prosecutors said.
Now a 35-year-old man will spend almost 15 yearsin prison.
Victor Gonzales was sentenced to 14 years and eight months on drug and weapons charges related to the search of two addresses on Albert Grady Road in Duplin County on April 13, 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina said in a news release.
Gonzales, who has been in jail since his arrest, could not be reached for comment. A defense attorney appointed to represent him did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Feb. 14.
According to a criminal complaint filed the same day the search took place, detectives with the Duplin County Sheriff’s Office worked with an unnamed “confidential source”to arrange a drug deal with Gonzalez.
The source was wearing a wire and given $2,000 to buy two bags of crystal meth, prosecutors said.
Court documents state the deal went down on April 7, 2021, at Gonzales’s home on Albert Grady Road in Mount Olive, after which the source met detectives after to hand over the drugs. Investigators later confirmed it was 60 grams of meth.
Prosecutors said detectives completed a second controlled buy on April 12 at the same house.
Law enforcement served a search warrant on two addresses associated with Gonzales the following day. Detectives said they found a box full of scales and 146 grams of meth in a van in the front yard, a loaded AR-15 in another car parked out front as well as the homemade pipe bomb in the safe.
A search of the second house reportedly uncovered six additional pipe bombs and two pistols.
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were called in to neutralize the homemade explosives, according to the release.
“Following his arrest, Gonzales stated that he was going to find out who was ‘snitching’ and that it was not going to be pretty,” prosecutors said.
Investigators subsequently discovered Gonzales had been dealing meth since October 2019 and was associated with the SUR 13 gang, prosecutors said. SUR 13, also known as Sureños, is a gang that started in Southern California and has migrated across the West, South and Northeast United States.
Sureños was at one point the most prevalent Hispanic gang in North Carolina with at least 1,800 members operating in 23 counties, according to a 2005 report on Hispanic and Latino gangs by the N.C. Criminal Justice Analysis Center.
A grand jury indicted Gonzales in May 2021, court documents show. In August, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute 50 grams or more of meth, distributing 50 grams or more of meth and possession of a pipe bomb.
The judge recommended Gonzales serve his sentence at FBI Butner. He was remanded to the custody of the United States Marshal immediately following sentencing, court documents show.
This story was originally published February 14, 2022 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Suspected meth dealer had homemade pipe bombs ready for the ‘snitch’ in NC, feds say."
