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A North Carolina man who pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing firearms as a convicted felon has been sentenced to 16 years in prison, a federal prosecutor says.

Michael Hucks pleaded guilty to the charges in June, according to G. Norman Acker III, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

According to court documents and information presented in court, law enforcement officers conducted an investigation into illegal firearm and drug trafficking from December 2019 until January 2020 at an address in Lumberton. The address was described in the documents as a known drug house where armed drug dealers sold significant quantities of crack cocaine.

On Dec. 12, 2019, a confidential informant purchased a loaded AR-15 style rifle from Hucks and another target of the investigation, according to the news release. Less than a week later, a confidential informant purchased another rifle from Hucks.

Hucks previously had been convicted of multiple felony offenses and was prohibited from possessing firearms, according to the news release. In fact, Hucks was previously convicted of three violent felony offenses and determined to be an armed career criminal at his sentencing hearing, officials said.

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