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Here’s a North Carolina story that sounds like it's straight out of Hollywood. A Lexington police officer was recognized nationally for his ability to bust drug traffickers along Interstate 85. But then the officer became a major drug trafficker himself and is now serving a 21-year prison sentence. Reporter Ahmed Jallow wrote about it and his story appeared in the Assembly. He joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry.
Marshall Terry: In addition to being a Lexington police officer, Freddie Huff was also a state trooper for a time. Who was he, and what made him so good at spotting drug traffickers?
Ahmed Jallow: For him, being a police officer was a lifelong dream since childhood. As for what made him really good, the simple answer really is he was obsessed with the job. Once he decided to make a traffic stop, he would immediately start trying to poke holes in the driver's story. This is one of the things he actually used later in his drug trafficking career.
Terry: What is North Carolina’s role in the drug trade? And how did Huff go from celebrated officer to, as you say, drug kingpin?
Jallow: North Carolina has an extensive highway interstate, I-85, which connects to I-95 that goes to places like New York City and other big cities like Atlanta. So a lot of the time, the state serves both as a destination for drug distribution and transit points to other states.
After 10 years as a Lexington police officer, he wanted to be a state trooper. That was another dream of his. He finally became one, and then he sold his state issued boot[s]. He lied about selling the shoes and he was fined for that. If you're in law enforcement and once you get fired for lying, that's it. It's almost impossible to get another job in law enforcement.
He was devastated. He started this appliance business and met a few folks from there that introduced him to the cartel in Mexico.
Terry: How big was his operation, and how was Fort Bragg and the U.S. Army involved?
Jallow: Huff, when he was arrested, he admitted to trafficking more than 2,000 kilograms of cocaine across North Carolina and other parts of the country. He was selling to Tim Dumas, an Army veteran, who had connections to Fort Bragg. Eventually, they grew very, very close together and Dumas was the person who introduced Huff to all these other things that was going on at Fort Bragg. To get more about that, really, you'll have to read the great book by Seth Harp, "[The] Fort Bragg Cartel." He goes more into details, but really his connection to Fort Bragg was through Tim Dumas, an army veteran.
Terry: What led to Huff’s downfall?
Jallow: So after Tim Dumas was killed in 2020, he was really devastated and it left a huge, huge hole in his whole operation. Really, his downfall started when Tim Dumas was killed and the feds seized a lot of money from him in Texas.
Terry: Yeah, so eventually his luck ran out, and he does get caught. This story is the centerpiece of a book that you mentioned just a moment ago, called "The Fort Bragg Cartel," but it really kind of flew under the radar when it happened and when he was sentenced a couple of years ago. Why do you think it went unnoticed?
Jallow: I started working on it in 2021-2022-ish, but it was a really difficult story to do because all of the most important documents were sealed. So I went all across the state, talked to so many people. But I still could not get the detail of the drug trafficking, of Huff’s drug trafficking operation, just because all the court documents were sealed and it was a federal case. But later on, I got access to those documents and Huff and some of his defendants started talking to me. That's how I got the story, but it took a while to get.
Jallow is now a reporter for NC Newsline.
