ASHEVILLE, N.C. — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - North Carolina, Western), published as received.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Arthur Shane Douville, 33, of Canton, N.C., was sentenced to 188 months in prison today followed by three years of supervised release for distributing methamphetamine, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

According to documents filed with the court and today’s sentencing hearing, law enforcement investigating methamphetamine trafficking rings operating in Haywood, Jackson and Buncombe Counties identified Douville as a wholesale methamphetamine trafficker who supplied local drug distributors. Court records show that in May 2020, Douville was driving through Haywood County, after he had travelled to Georgia to buy methamphetamine. Law enforcement stopped Douville’s vehicle, and over the course of the traffic stop they seized nearly two ounces of methamphetamine hidden in a false vehicle compartment. Court records show that the methamphetamine seized was part of a larger eight-ounce quantity obtained in Georgia, some of which Douville had already distributed. Douville had made a similar trip one week earlier, obtaining four ounces of methamphetamine at that time.

At today’s sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger enhanced Douville’s sentence after he found that the defendant had attempted to obstruct justice and derail his prosecution by producing forged letters and fake messages supposedly written and sent by a co-defendant, in which the co-defendant allegedly admitted that the seized methamphetamine belonged to him and not Douville.

On October 26, 2022, Douville pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.

U.S. Attorney King credited today’s sentence to an investigation led by the Western District’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) and thanked the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office for their investigative efforts.

OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles criminal organizations using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

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