Fired Raleigh detective sentenced after pleading guilty in drug-scheme case
Former Raleigh Police Department detective Omar Abdullah has been accused in civil court of framing more than a dozen men on trumped-up drug charges. Today he pleaded guilty to a single obstruction of justice charge in Wake County Superior Court.
Superior Court Judge Pat Nadolski sentenced him to 38 days in jail, followed by 24 months of supervised probation.
Assistant District Attorney David Saaks argued that Abdullah should spend from three to four months in prison.
The fired detective said his actions weren’t malicious and he didn’t mean to harm anyone.
“I have been an officer for 12 years,” he said. “I have always tried my best to work hard and follow the rules, harm anyone.”
Abdulah’s defense attorney Ryan Ellis said that Abdullah takes responsibility for his actions, but that he didn’t act alone. Abdullah was manipulated by a confidential informant, Ellis said, and none of his colleagues or supervisors intervened.
Abdullah worked as part of the Raleigh Police Department’s drug unit, and followed their policies and training, he said.
Abdullah faced up to 19 months in prison for the Class H felony, according to the state’s sentencing guidelines.
Suspicions about Abdullah, who worked for Raleigh ‘s police department for 13 years, surfaced in early 2020 after a defense attorney representing men arrested by the detective brought questions about false drug evidence to District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, according to interviews.
By September 2020, Raleigh police and Freeman were investigating cases of false evidence in more than a dozen drug cases. Abdullah was placed on administrative leave during the investigation and was fired about a year later.
But details of the scandal didn’t surface until April 2021, when people Abdullah had arrested filed a 24-page federal lawsuit accusing the detective of conspiring with a confidential informant to send more than a dozen Black men to jail and prison in a fake heroin scheme.
The lawsuit included individuals who faced heroin charges, and in one case a marijuana charge, for substances provided by a police informant that turned out to be fake.
About a dozen men spent a collective two and a half years behind bars before their charges were dismissed, the lawsuit states. They lost jobs and missed cancer treatments and time with their children.
Virginia Bridges covers criminal justice in the Triangle and across North Carolina for The News & Observer. Her work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The N&O maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
Correction: This story was modified to correct the precise charge filed against Omar Abdullah and the potential sentences.
