NC man sentenced to 25 years on drug charges, escape from Virginia jail
The North Carolina man who escaped federal custody earlier this year – along with another man suspected of killing a Wake County deputy – will spend the next 25 years in federal prison.
Bruce Callahan, 45, pleaded guilty for his role in a conspiracy to sell fentanyl, crack and cocaine.
The federal government asked for Callahan to be sentenced to 25 years and got it. The Department of Justice said Callahan was one of the biggest drug traffickers in eastern North Carolina.
Earlier this year, Callahan escaped custody.
"Twenty-five years in prison for somebody the age of Bruce Callahan he will be an old man the day he walks out of those prison gates if he doesn't leave in a pine box," U.S. Attorney Michael Easley Jr. said.
Easley said Callahan built a drug enterprise in Robeson County using Mexican and Honduran contacts he made while serving an earlier sentence in federal prison.
"He boasted that he had access to dozens and dozens of kilos of narcotics through suppliers in Honduras and Mexico at any given time," Easley said.
The Robeson County Sheriff's Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had launched an investigation into Callahan in 2021 with undercover agents buying crack and cocaine from Callahan's home.
Callahan was arrested in September 2021 during a traffic stop. Investigators found two kilos of fentanyl in the back seat of the vehicle and cocaine and a gun at his home.
Callahan was in custody on charges related to that when he escaped in May from the Piedmont Regional Jail in Virginia. He was sentenced to 20 months in custody with three years of probation for the escape.
Callahan received the fourth 25-year sentence recently dealt to drug traffickers in North Carolina.
“We want to make the message clear that we are absolutely leaning into prosecuting those who are trafficking fentanyl in our communities and we hope that this 25-year sentence for Bruce Callahan sends a strong message,” Easley said.
While Callahan already pleaded guilty to escaping from prison, the other inmate who escaped, Alder Marin-Sotelo, is still in Mexico, where he was arrested.
Marin-Sotelo and his brother are charged with killing Wake County Deputy Ned Byrd in August 2022.
