Fort Bragg's Dark Secrets: Seth Harp's book unveils murders and cartel ties in Fayetteville

Seth Harp has written a jaw-dropping new book about two murders that happened on Fort Bragg military base in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in late 2020.

2025-10-20

The book is called The Fort Bragg Cartel Exposed: Inside the Shocking Web of Murder Smuggling and Military Secrets Hidden in Americas Elite Forces.

Harp is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone Magazine, and a former assistant Attorney General for the state of Texas.

The murders he writes about in his new book are also murders that WRAL covered when they happened.

Harp talked with WRAL about his new book.

“The book is about murders that took place on Fort Bragg in 2020. The main question in the book is who killed Timothy Dumas and Billy Levine. Both were found shot to death and dumped in the woods near Lake MacArthur off Manchester Road in the base of Fort Bragg in 2020,” Harp explains.

Three years after the murders of Timothy Dumas and Bill Levine, Kenneth Quick Jr. of Laurinburg was arrested. He was 20 years old at the time of his arrest.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Quick allegedly committed first-degree murder by shooting a victim on Fort Bragg on Dec. 1, 2020. And that he murders the second victim that same day. Quick has pleaded not guilty and his federal trial is scheduled for 2026.

WRAL also reported on the arrest of Kenneth Quick Jr.

When asked on his thoughts about Kenneth Quick Jr as the suspect in the murders Harp said “I don’t know. The FBI denied all my FOIA requests and didn't respond to any requests for an interview. They're the ones who investigated the case.” 

Also in the book, Harp writes about a man named Freddie Huff. Huff is a former North Carolina State Highway Patrol officer turned drug dealer, and he forged a relationship with the Mexican cartel and one of the murder victims, Timothy Dumas.

Harp explains, "He (Huff) got into business at a certain point with Timothy Dumas and began pumping cocaine into the Fort Bragg pipeline because Fort Bragg is a massive drug market."

Huff was sentenced on drug charges back in 2023 to 252 months in federal prison.

Harp's book is more than a recount of unsolved murders and illicit dealings; Harp hopes his book will lead to calls for more transparency for everyone's sake. The book was written to urge readers and officials alike to demand accountability from institutions that have long operated in the shadows, hoping for a future where justice is not obscured by secrecy. 

HBO has recently bought the rights to the book and is in the early stages of developing a series.