Police in North Carolina have arrested four people in connection with a drug trafficking scheme that resulted in the seizure of thousands ...
Police in North Carolina have arrested four people in connection with a drug trafficking scheme that resulted in the seizure of thousands of pounds of marijuana.
The Catawba County Sheriff’s Office stated that the investigation lasted for six months and included the collaboration of multiple agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and the police departments of numerous North Carolina counties and cities (a full list below).
WBTV reported that the investigation resulted in the seizure of 6,800 pounds of marijuana intercepted at the United States-Mexico border. It also nabbed 18 kilograms (more than 39 pounds) of cocaine and $200,000.
“Jose Garcia, 31, Juan Olmos, 46 and Michael Proffitt, 36, have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and trafficking in cocaine,” the outlet reported. “Garica [sic], Olmos and Proffitt are incarcerated in the Catawba County Detention Center.”
Officials determined Garcia was in the United States illegally and is being investigated by Immigration Customs and Enforcement.
In addition, Crispin Fair, 50, was charged with trafficking in heroin.
The full list of agencies involved in the list were, according to WBTV:
Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Catawba County Sheriff’s Office, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Alexander County Sheriff’s Office, Burke County Sheriff’s Office, Newton Police Department, Longview Police Department, Hickory Police Department, Greensboro Police Department
This multi-county drug bust came just days after another major bust in the state involving additional counties.
WLOS reported that more than a dozen people were arrested in connection with another drug ring. Three of the more than 12 arrested, Fabian Carrillo Blas, Abel Carbajal, and Mark Leman Tobe, were alleged to have “conspired to distribute large quantities of cocaine,” the outlet reported.
“As a result of the investigation, approximately nine pounds of methamphetamine, three pounds of cocaine, smaller amounts of heroin pills and marijuana were seized, as well as several firearms and more than $90,000,” WLOS reported.
This operation also included the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as “the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), Asheville Police Department, Henderson County Sheriff’s Office, [and] Haywood County Sheriff’s Office,” the outlet reported.
This year has seen numerous large-scale drug busts across the country. In September, police in Virginia arrested 35 people and seized “enough fentanyl to kill 14 million people,” CBS News reported. That bust also nabbed more than 30 kilograms of heroine, five kilograms of cocaine, more than $700,000, and 24 firearms.
In June, federal law enforcement officials completed the largest drug bust in the history of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The officials seized more than 33,000 pounds of cocaine — an amount that could have killed millions of people. Just two people were arrested in connection with the massive drug bust.
Most of the drugs are coming from south of the U.S.-Mexico border.
No comments