Year after Raleigh drug cases dropped, informant charged, detective still suspended

An informant who helped Raleigh police make drug arrests that later had to be dismissed, leading to a detective's suspension, now faces criminal charges himself.

Dennis Williams Jr., 27, has been charged with five counts of obstruction of justice. He remains in the Wake County jail.

The arrest was first uncovered in a report by The Assembly.

Authorities said that, between December 2019 and May 2020, Williams worked with Raleigh police Detective Omar Abdullah on controlled drug buys that led to 15 Black men being arrested and jailed on drug trafficking charges.

But lab tests showed the "drugs" Williams used in the transactions weren't illegal narcotics. Also, he failed to get the transactions on video.

Charges against all 15 men were dropped, and Abdullah was placed on paid leave last September. He remains on leave, although some people say he should face charges as well.

"He needs to be indicted," said Robin Mills, whose son, Marcus Vanirvin, was among those arrested.

Vanirvin spent 18 days in jail before the heroin trafficking charges against him were dropped.

"They arrested all these people, and it turns out there was no evidence," Mills said. "It’s wrong that all those people got arrested and got held in jail and got traumatized."

Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said the State Bureau of Investigation is still reviewing the case, but so far, there's no evidence showing that Abdullah was aware that Williams wasn't using actual drugs in the deals.

"We have not had evidence that would support charges against Detective Abdullah or against the Raleigh Police Department. That is not the same thing as saying, were there things that should have been done differently," Freeman said.

Abdullah didn't respond to multiple calls and messages from WRAL News seeking comment.

"He got duped by [an informant] and he’s a veteran officer – not once, but over a dozen times?" an incredulous Mills said.

A lawsuit filed against the city, Abdullah and several other Raleigh police officers makes the same argument, alleging that a number of people knew that Williams wasn't using actual drugs but never told prosecutors in Freeman's office about it, and police continued to use Williams to make cases against others.

The lawsuit, which is heading to mediation next week, alleges that Williams and Abdullah conspired to target Black men for arrest. Some of the plaintiffs spent as long as five months in jail before their charges were dropped, and some lost jobs and were separated from their children because of the wrongful arrests, the lawsuit states.

Freeman declined to comment on the lawsuit, but she said the case has led to changes in her office.

"As soon as [the City-County Bureau of Identification] has finished their lab analysis, they are now making direct contact with the head of our drug unit so we can review the case,” she said.

Raleigh officials likewise aren't commenting on the pending litigation. Meanwhile, Raleigh police won't discuss Abdullah's handling of the drug cases.

The SBI has been looking at other cases Williams was involved in, but Freeman said no one has reviewed Abdullah's other cases.

"At some point, if we believe that it’s appropriate and have reason to believe that his prior cases need to be reviewed, we will do that," she said. “I think, if people look back, where I have had evidence of abusive authority or excessive force that would support a prosecution, I have not hesitated in holding law enforcement accountable."

Mills said a deeper dive into Abdullah's record with the Raleigh Police Department should have already been done.

"How do we know this isn’t ongoing? How do we know there are not more people downtown or wherever they lock people up who are saying, ‘I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it,’ and their freedom has been stolen?" she said.