FBI, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police make drug arrests at north Charlotte hotel
After a six-month undercover investigation, local police and federal agents in Charlotte made arrests and moved to take control of a hotel in the Sugar Creek area on Wednesday they said was a drug trafficking hub.
Officials said the security team at the hotel was part of the drug trade.
Four people arrested Wednesday morning are facing federal drug trafficking and firearm charges, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.
A fifth person is facing federal charges, but hasn’t been arrested yet, a news release said. Six others were arrested Wednesday on state drug and firearm charges, a CMPD news release said.
Some people are accused of renting rooms at the Charlotte Garden Inn and Suites on Reagan Drive to store and distribute drugs, as well as “other criminal activity,” a news release said.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Russ Ferguson, CMPD Chief Estella Patterson and FBI Special Agent in Charge Reid Davis spoke at a news conference in the afternoon about the operation.
“The hotel operated as a distribution hub, was also a trafficking location for legal firearms and narcotics, and it really supplied a lot of drugs to our city,” Patterson said. “It was an open-air drug market where dealers routinely rented homes or rooms and used the property as a safe haven to store, package, and distribute drugs.”
Ferguson said a complaint was filed to seize the hotel from its owner, who he accused of being complicit.
Hundreds of CMPD officers and FBI agents were involved in the operation, which was meant to send a message to other businesses that might be engaging in criminal activity, Ferguson said.
“This is what federal tools like asset forfeiture afford,” Ferguson said. “To take hotels like this, where the owner is complicit, knows there’s crime going on, doesn’t do anything to stop the crime.”
Police announced the investigation around 8:40 a.m. Armed FBI agents in camouflage and military-style fatigues were riding on top of and in the back of an armored pickup truck.
The operation involved surveillance, undercover work and the controlled purchasing of drugs and firearms, CMPD said. Police purchased drugs and firearms from some of the hotel’s security team, including one of the people arrested Wednesday who was head of security.
The complaint for forfeiture of the property said “the hotel security team often had extensive criminal records and/or were previously documented gang members, who used their security jobs at the Garden Inn as cover for dealing drugs there — with some even wearing the security uniform during the drug deals,” according to CMPD.
At one point, a Charlotte Fire Department engine arrived and blocked the view of the scene. A fire spokesperson said the department responded to a fire alarm, and was not part of the drug operation.
A woman who declined to give her name said officers went room-to-room in the hotel knocking on doors and yelling “FBI!”
This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 10:08 AM.
