WASHINGTON - A
former police officer with the Windsor, North Carolina Police Department was
sentenced today to 180 months in prison for accepting bribe payments from a
purported large-scale drug trafficking organization in exchange for protecting
shipments of purported narcotics.
Acting Assistant
Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal
Division and U.S. Attorney Robert J. Higdon, Jr. of the Eastern District of
North Carolina made the announcement.
Antonio Tillmon,
33, of Windsor, North Carolina, was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Court
Judge Malcolm J. Howard. In addition to the term of prison imposed, Judge
Howard ordered Tillmon to serve five years of supervised release. In May 2017,
Tillmon was found guilty of drug, firearm, and bribery charges following a
week-long jury trial.
According to trial
evidence, Tillmon accepted $6,500 from undercover FBI agents posing as drug
traffickers in return for transporting a total of 30 kilograms of heroin from
North Carolina to Maryland on three separate occasions between August 2014 and
April 2015. On each occasion, Tillman carried with him his Windsor Police
Department badge and a firearm, and was prepared to use his badge and fake
documentation to evade drug interdiction by legitimate law enforcement.
The evidence at trial also showed that Tillmon was poised to participate in
another drug run on a fourth occasion the day that he was arrested—and he had
brought with him five firearms, including an assault rifle.
Fourteen other
defendants, 12 of whom were law enforcement or correctional
officers, were charged as a result of this investigation. Those
defendants all pleaded guilty to various offenses and were sentenced in
June 2017.
The
case was investigated by the FBI’s Charlotte Division, Raleigh Resident Agency.
The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Lauren Bell and Molly Gaston of
the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney
Toby W. Lathan of the Eastern District of North Carolina.