News

Hendersonville man gets federal prison for drug trafficking

By Lightning Reports, Published: August 28, 2025

A federal judge sentenced a 39-year-old Hendersonville man to 10 years in prison for trafficking methamphetamine, U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson announced. 

Chief U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger sentenced Michael Lindsey Jones to the prison term plus five years of supervised release.

Earlier, Jones’s supplier, Zachery Micah Rice, was sentenced to more than 28 years in prison for trafficking fentanyl and methamphetamine. According to court records, from 2021 to 2023, Jones conspired with Rice to distribute significant quantities of methamphetamine in Buncombe, Henderson, and Transylvania counties.

During the investigation into Jones and Rice’s trafficking activities, law enforcement used a confidential informant to purchase pound quantities of methamphetamine from Rice in transactions that Jones coordinated. Court records show that Jones arranged the drug deals, set the meeting times and locations with the confidential informant, and handled the drug-for-cash exchanges. From February to April 2023, Jones was responsible for distributing nearly 2½ pounds of methamphetamine.

Jones pleaded guilty last Dec. 30 to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and aiding and abetting the distribution of methamphetamine. He remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending placement by the federal Bureau of Prisons.

In making today’s announcement, U.S. Attorney Ferguson thanked the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina, the Asheville Police Department, the Waynesville Police Department, the Cherokee Indian
Police Department, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office, the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office, the Haywood County Sheriff’s Office, the Swain County Sheriff’s Office, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, and the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina for their investigation of the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher S. Hess of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville handled the prosecution.