Inside the rise and sudden fall of a Triangle drug-dealing ring
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- After prison, men built pipeline moving cocaine and fentanyl, records say.
- Wiretaps, surveillance and GPS tracking led to arrests.
- Judge sentenced Kevin Johnson to 17 years.
Every business has an origin story.
This one began inside a North Carolina prison, where two men met while serving sentences later shortened amid concerns about the investigations and witnesses that sent them there.
Early release offered Khuram Choudhry and Kevin Johnson an opportunity. An opportunity they used to build a new pipeline to bring kilos of cocaine and fentanyl into the Triangle.
What they did not know: As the two men expanded their operation, federal and local investigators were watching and documenting their growing enterprise.
In May 2025, federal agents moved in just as the men prepared to distribute their biggest shipment yet, an expected 50 kilograms of cocaine and fentanyl, according to court documents.
Federal agents arrested Choudhry, Johnson and eight others, accusing them of participating in a conspiracy to distribute lethal drugs in North Carolina. Just this week, a federal judge sentenced Johnson to 17 years in prison.
Two men released early from prison
Johnson and Choudhry first crossed paths behind razor wire in a prison in the northeastern corner of the state, where they were confined in parts of 2017 and 2018.
In 2008, a Durham jury had found Choudhry guilty of killing Rana Shahzad Ahmed. Choudhry and another man were accused of beating him to death with a baseball bat at his apartment.
His life-in-prison sentence was reduced to 14 years after Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry and Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson agreed in 2019 to downgrade his murder conviction and sentence due to concerns about the fairness of his trial.
The dismissal cited a 2016 affidavit from a witness saying he made false statements to avoid being charged with other crimes. It was one of dozens of vacated or reduced convictions that Deberry and Hudson approved without hearings in response to claims of injustices.
In 2023, a different judge vacated Johnson’s 2007 felony convictions for shooting a Durham officer during a burglary. The Durham DA’s Office declined to retry him, citing concerns about the truthfulness of witnesses.
Once free, Johnson worked for Durham County Health Department’s anti-gun violence group Bull City United, mentoring teens and promoting anti-gun efforts. He lost that job in January 2024 after six months when he faced charges of possessing firearms and drug paraphernalia.
The charges were quickly dismissed, but Johnson struggled to find steady employment, he said at his sentencing hearing.
Johnson lands on law enforcement’s radar
The drug-selling investigation started in September 2024, focused on Johnson.
Someone tipped off a Durham County sheriff investigator that Johnson was approaching people at the Durham bar and grill Braile’s, looking to sell cocaine.
After the tip, an undercover officer reached out to Johnson and set up a plan to exchange 4 grams of cocaine for $200 that same day. The buy in the Braile’s parking lot was captured on video and the drugs, which came in light at only 3.15 grams, were confirmed through testing.
The Raleigh Durham Safe Streets Task Force, federal and local officers who investigate gangs and violence, followed Johnson for months after that as he sold cocaine and fentanyl at local gas stations, business parking lots and his apartment, according to court documents and testimony.
Surveillance teams watched him move from parking lot to parking lot, gas stations to side streets. At one stop, he climbed into a car, then out again, then into another vehicle, suspected of making deals in each one, records say.
They also recorded Johnson as he continued to supply the undercover officer with cocaine and fentanyl in a Walgreens parking lot, in gas station bathrooms and parking lots.
A new pipeline
During his recent sentencing hearing, Johnson said he could not find work after being fired from Bull City United, so he turned to selling drugs. .
He reached out to Choudhry in 2024 on the advice of his attorney, who said Choudhry appeared to be doing well after his release from prison with his trucking business, court documents say.
In October 2024, Choudhry’s girlfriend, also described as his wife during testimony, brought him to a family reunion in New Jersey. There that Choudhry met Shazad Khan and they started to discuss selling drugs, said Khan, who was among those arrested and who testified at Johnson’s sentencing hearing.
Khan sold cocaine in kilos — about $32,000 a brick — Choudhry learned. Since Choudhry was “family,” he charged Choudhry $16,000, Khan said in court. Choudhry and Khan used Choudhry’s trucking business vehicles to get some drugs to the Triangle. They also shipped drugs through the mail.
Choudhry returned to New Jersey at the end of 2024 to New Jersey to pick up a couple of kilos of cocaine on a shipping run, Khan said. He mentioned he had a friend interested in selling fentanyl, Khan testified.
The three got on a FaceTime telephone call in December .“How can I set it up. How can I do it,” Khan said Johnson asked.
In a February run, Choudhry picked up four kilos of cocaine and one kilo of fentanyl, Khan testified. It would cost Johnson $30,000.
At Johnson’s sentencing hearing, he said that Khan was lying and he didn’t know him or some of the others until after they were all indicted. Johnson got his drugs from different people and wasn’t able to afford a $30,000 payment for drugs, he said.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense, judge,” Johnson testified.
After chastising Johnson for violating the trust of kids he worked with for Bull City United, North Carolina’s U.S. Middle District Judge William Osteen sentenced Johnson to 17 years in prison.
The wiretap
A federal judge authorized wiretaps on two of Johnson’s phones in March 2025.
In April 2025, the wiretap extended to Choudhry after investigators identified him as Johnson’s main drug source, records say.
Investigators also tracked Choudhry as he made runs to New Jersey and went back and forth from his Morrisville apartment to a SecurCare Self Storage unit in Durham to pick up drugs and drop off cash, records say.
They also started following Choudhry’s customers. That included Dwight Chandler Jr., who police tailed on April 25, 2025, after he left Choudhry’s apartment carrying a bag.
Chandler drove and parked his car at The House restaurant and nightclub in Durham. He waited until a KIA SUV pulled up and climbed in, holding the bag.
Deputies pulled the vehicle over near downtown Durham after it exited N.C. 147. The Kia was driven by a Lyft driver Chandler had hired.
Inside the bag, officers found a brick of suspected cocaine and another smaller package. The exterior had been smeared with petroleum jelly, a tactic traffickers use to try to confuse police K-9s.
Facing charges, Chandler, who denied owning the bag, told investigators that Choudhry was planning something much bigger: a 50-kilogram cocaine pickup.
On April 30, 2024, investigators listened in as Choudhry complained to an associate about money issues with Khan and discussed changing his supplier to a high-ranking Bloods gang member in the state who claimed he could easily provide 50 kilos a month, records say.
A trip to Los Angeles
On May 1, Choudhry climbed into his semi-truck packed with cash and headed west toward Los Angeles, according to court documents. Choudhry’s girlfriend flew to Los Angeles from North Carolina and Khan from New Jersey on May 5, 2025.
Having placed a GPS on Choudhry’s truck, investigators tracked him as all three remained in the city through May 8, when Khan flew out. The next day, Choudhry began his drive back east, stopping at a furniture warehouse in Southern California before heading across the desert.
At 3:32 a.m. on May 9, FBI agents woke him at a truck stop near Gallup, New Mexico, where he’d parked for the night, and arrested him.
Inside a furniture box in the trailer of the semi-truck, investigators found about 22 kilos of cocaine and fentanyl. Choudhry told agents that whatever they found in the truck belonged to Khan.
Johnson was arrested on May 12 in Durham and Khan on May 23 in New Jersey.
Choudhry pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and fentanyl. As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to forfeit his 2016 semi-truck and faces up to 20 years in prison, though the judge could impose a longer sentence.
Both Khan and Choudry’s sentencing are scheduled in federal court in March.
This story was originally published February 28, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
