The fall of ‘Team Young Money’: How officials dismantled an NC heroin operation

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For years, a family-run heroin operation functioned like a drive-through drug outlet in a rural North Carolina county with one of the state’s highest overdose death rates.

Day after day, cars pulled up to 56 Kelly Road in Vance County, where drivers made a quick exchange and drove away with bags of heroin and fentanyl. The drugs moved beyond Henderson, feeding customers and dealers in Granville, Wake and Durham counties, federal officials said Monday.

The house was the retail counter. Two nearby properties served as stash houses. Drugs and cash were hidden throughout the properties, including buried in buckets and in stacks of tires.

And it went on for years. Federal officials said the operation dated back at least a decade. From 2016 until police raided the properties in 2022, Vance County’s overdose death rate more than tripled, climbing from nearly 16 deaths per 100,000 residents to 50, according to state data. Statewide, the rate rose from 19 to 41 per 100,000 during the same period.

By 2019, federal and local investigators had begun building a case against what they described as a family-centered, street gang called Team Young Money, according to court documents. At its center, prosecutors said, was Alexander Trowbridge, the youngest of three brothers involved in the organization.

On Monday, U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle for the federal Eastern District of North Carolina announced that Trowbridge had been sentenced to nearly 27 years in prison after pleading guilty to four drug and gun charges, including distributing more than 400 grams of fentanyl and 2.2 pounds of heroin. Trowbridge was one of six defendants who received a combined 66 years in prison.

Boyle used the case to make a larger point about investigations. Standing alongside local, state and federal law enforcement officers, he described the Trowbridge investigation as an example of the kind of coordinated effort they intend to use against the drug networks that remain.

“If you sell drugs, we will find you. We will prosecute you, and we will put you in federal big boy prison for a long time,” Boyle said.

The investigation gained traction in 2020, when law enforcement stopped a person carrying about 350 “bricks” of heroin mixed with fentanyl. The operation sold the heroin for about $160 per brick, according to court documents.

The person began cooperating and told investigators that she had traveled to the New Jersey area multiple times since 2018 to pick up drug shipments from a supplier.

Investigators also watched the operation electronically and in person. They used a drone to watch people selling, retrieving and hiding drugs.

On Nov. 17, 2022, law enforcement officials executed search warrants at the operation’s three properties. They seized 118 grams of heroin, 14 firearms, more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition, and about $100,000 in cash, according to court documents.

“This criminal organization has been a thorn at the very least for us for a long time, and we are grateful for the partnership and all the resources that we were able to pull together,” said Vance County District Attorney Mike Waters.

N.C. State Bureau of Investigation Director Chip Hawley also praised Boyle, who was appointed U.S. attorney in August 2025 and confirmed earlier this year. Boyle has made dismantling such operations a priority, along with breaking down the silos that can separate law enforcement agencies.

“He’s willing to cross lanes, cross the highway, back up, go forward, whatever it takes to keep North Carolina safe,” Hawley said.

This story was originally published August 24, 2026 at 3:48 PM with the headline “The fall of ‘Team Young Money’: How officials dismantled an NC heroin operation.”