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March 19, 2024

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Georgia Fugitive Sentenced to 13 Years For Drug Trafficking

Today, Chief U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger sentenced James Julius
Lumpkin, of Sevierville, Tennessee, to 156 months in prison and five years of supervised release
for drug trafficking, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North
Carolina.

U.S. Attorney King is joined in making today’s announcement by Robert J. Murphy, Special
Agent in Charge of the Atlanta Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),
which oversees the Asheville Post of Duty, Jamaal Thompson Commander of the U.S. Marshals
Service Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force, and Sheriff Chip Hall of the Jackson County
Sheriff’s Office.

According to filed court documents and the sentencing hearing, in November 2020, the U.S.
Marshals Service Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force learned that Lumpkin, a fugitive with
outstanding arrest warrants in Georgia for trafficking narcotics, was located in Jackson County.
Law enforcement learned that Lumpkin was staying at a local motel in Cullowhee, North
Carolina, and proceeded to plan the arrest. On November 6, 2020, a team of federal and local law
enforcement arrested Lumpkin while he was sitting in his van at the motel parking lot. At the
time of the arrest, law enforcement seized from the van multiple plastic bags containing
methamphetamine, digital scales, two loaded firearms, and ammunition. Law enforcement also
recovered at the scene marijuana and prescription opioid pills.

On November 1, 2021, Lumpkin pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute
methamphetamine, marijuana and Hydrocodone. He is currently in federal custody and will be
transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.
In making today’s announcement, U.S. Attorney King credited the U.S. Marshals Service
Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force, the DEA’s Asheville Post of Duty and the Jackson
County Sheriff’s Office for the investigation of this case.

Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Kent, of the United States Attorney’s Office in
Asheville, prosecuted the case.

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