NEW HANOVER COUNTY — A case involving investigation among multiple law enforcement agencies came to a close last week when a 29-year-old New Hanover County man pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking.
A Robeson County judge, J. Stanley Carmical, sentenced 29-year-old Sean Ruffolo to the mandatory term of 35 to 51 months in the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. He was charged with one count of trafficking MDMA and one count of trafficking LSD.
Ruffolo also will pay a mandated fine of $50,000.
“This case is a great example of how different law enforcement agencies on both the state and federal level can collaborate with one another to take down an international drug trafficker,” Assistant District Attorney Brad Matthews said in a press release.
Ruffolo was arrested in spring 2021 after officers from the Department of Homeland Security commandeered a package that had been addressed to the defendant’s Carolina Beach home, according to the release. Inside it was 186.71 grams of MDMA.
Thereafter, the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office and Carolina Beach Police Department organized a delivery of a package near Independence Mall on Oleander Drive. They arrested Ruffolo when he took control of the bundle.
A search warrant was then executed on the defendant’s apartment. Detectives located in his bedroom 250 dosage units of LSD, a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun, 20.6 grams of DMT, 2.32 pounds of marijuana, and an additional 21.25 grams of MDMA.
A motion to suppress evidence in the case was denied.
“Drug traffickers who possess both a large amount of narcotics and firearms, like this defendant, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law in our district,” District Attorney Ben David said in the release.
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