Catawba County Man Convicted Of Meth Trafficking

42-year-old Phillip James Preston of Sherrills Ford, was sentenced to serve six to eight years in prison following his conviction for trafficking methamphetamine. The sentence was imposed after Preston entered a guilty plea during Catawba County Superior Court on Tuesday, November 18.

The Honorable Peter Knight, Superior Court Judge from Henderson County, imposed terms of the active sentence. The defendant also will have to pay a mandatory fine of $50,000. Preston was taken into custody on May 28, 2025, during a traffic stop following an ongoing drug investigation.

A confidential informant made multiple purchases of drugs from the defendant, leading investigators to seek a warrant for his phone. They tracked his location to Charlotte where he made a pickup of illegal substances. When Preston and his co-defendant returned to Catawba County, the vehicle was stopped. He was in the passenger seat, and deputies noticed a glass pipe on him. A subsequent search led to the seizure of a trafficking amount of methamphetamine, according to testing by the State Crime Lab.

Ethan Fox handled the investigation for the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office.

Story: Rob Eastwood-WHKY