WRAL Investigates

Former Raleigh police officer arrested after fake drug arrests

A former Raleigh police officer has been arrested in connection to a string of wrongful drug arrests between 2019 and 2020.

Posted Updated

RALEIGH, N.C. — A former Raleigh police officer has been arrested in connection to a string of wrongful drug arrests between 2019 and 2020.

Authorities allege that, between December 2019 and May 2020, Detective Omar Abdullah used an informant named Dennis Leon Williams Jr. on controlled drug buys that led to Black men being arrested and jailed on drug trafficking charges.

However, lab tests showed the "drugs" Williams used in the transactions weren't illegal narcotics. He also failed to get the transactions on video.

Authorities allege that, between December 2019 and May 2020, Detective Omar Abdullah used an informant named Dennis Leon Williams Jr. on controlled drug buys that led to Black men being arrested and jailed on drug trafficking charges.

Abdullah is accused of framing 23 people over fake heroin deals and conspiring to target Black men for arrest. Some 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, according to a lawsuit filed by their families.

Abdullah was arrested July 29 and charged with felony obstruction of justice days after a Wake County grand jury handed down an indictment, advancing the criminal case against Abdullah. He is scheduled to appear in court Monday.

Robin Mills, the mother of one of the wrongfully arrested man, said she isn't fully satisfied with the outcome.

"There should be more outrage than what I'm seeing," said Mills.

"A Black man doing that to fellow Black men? I have nothing for him. [I] could care less what happens to him."

In October 2021, Raleigh officials agreed to pay 13 of the men a total of $2 million to settle a lawsuit over their wrongful arrests.

 Credits 

Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.