WILMINGTON — Two Pembroke men have been charged with robbing and assaulting an undercover federal informant.
Vincent Locklear and Aaron Cody Maynor are accused of assaulting a person assisting a federal officer, theft of government property, using a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime and being felons in possession of a firearm.
The Robeson County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were conducting an investigation in January that included Locklear, according to court documents. A confidential informant, identified only as “Victim 1” in court documents, was working undercover looking to buy firearms and heroin on behalf of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from people lawmen believed to be dealers.
Locklear and Maynor were arrested on state charges in January. This week a federal indictment was approved by a grand jury, and the men arrested and taken before a magistrate. Both men are being held without bond.
According to the documents, while under surveillance by law enforcement, the informant agreed to meet with Locklear in the parking lot of the Pembroke Walmart on the afternoon of Jan. 13. The two left the meeting place when Locklear offered to introduce the informant to a friend who had several guns for sale.
The two went to a Haroldton Road address in Pembroke where Maynor and another man, who was not named in the indictment, were waiting. Upon arrival, Locklear, Maynor and the third man pulled firearms on the informant and threatened to shoot him if he did not hand over cash, his wallet, and his shoes, according to an affidavit.
The theft of government property charge is based on the theft of the $600 federal agents gave the informant to buy a gun.
The three men then fled after the robbery but were followed by law enforcement. They went to Locklear’s house at 56 Winford Road in Pembroke. Locklear and Maynor were arrested shortly after they arrived. No mention is made of the third man’s status in court documents.
Locklear and Maynor admitted the assault and robbery, according to Special Agent Thomas J. Wishon of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Law enforcement searched the Winford Road residence and found several shotguns and pistols.
Photographs of the two men charged were not immediately available.