News

Flat Rock man sentenced to federal prison in drug conspiracy case

By Amy McCraw, Published: November 21, 2025

A Flat Rock man was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison this week after pleading guilty over the summer to charges related to conspiring to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine.

In addition to the time in federal prison, Les Corey Peak, 38, of Flat Rock, was also sentenced to five years of supervised probation, according to a press release from Russ Ferguson, the U.S. Attorney for Western North Carolina.
Peak pleaded guilty on June 23 to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances. He remains in federal custody pending placement by the Federal Bureau of Prisons at a designated facility.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher S. Hess of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville handled the case involving Peak.
Court records and criminal proceedings showed that Peak, while incarcerated in the Georgia Department of Corrections, conspired with Zachery Micah Rice and others from 2021 to 2023 to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl in Buncombe, Henderson and Transylvania Counties and elsewhere, federal prosecutors said.
Peak, using contraband phones, worked with his Atlanta-based supplier to arrange bulk drug purchases and coordinated with Rice to arrange the pickups. Rice then transported the drugs back to Western North Carolina for further distribution through a local network of traffickers and dealers.
During one of the transactions Peak arranged, law enforcement stopped and searched Rice’s vehicle, seizing more 11.5 kilograms of methamphetamine, a .40 caliber pistol modified to fully automatic with a machinegun conversion device known as a “Glock switch” and more than $32,683 in cash. Investigators later executed search warrants at stash houses and a storage unit used by Rice, recovering kilogram quantities of fentanyl and methamphetamine supplied by the Atlanta-based source, multiple firearms, including high-capacity magazines ammunition, digital scales, drug paraphernalia used for drug distribution, and more than $27,470, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Rice was sentenced in May to more than 28 years in prison for his role in the conspiracy.
Ferguson thanked the numerous federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in North and South Carolina for their work on the case, which was part of Operation Take Back America.
Take Back America is a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and protect communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.