KENANSVILLE — Three illegal Hispanics were arrested and a large quantity of marijuana seized in the first major bust by the newly organized Duplin County Drug Enforcement Task Force, Duplin County Sheriff Blake Wallace announced Friday.
Wallace said the three suspects were apprehended in a late model Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck on highway N.C. 24 between
Warsaw
and
Clinton
in
Duplin
County
. He said 50 pounds of marijuana with a street value of approximately $200,000 was found in two large duffel bags in the bed of the truck.
The drug task force had received information through the Onslow County Sheriff Office that the marijuana was en route to
Duplin
County
from
Mexico
.
Each of the three suspects was booked on multilple charges of trafficking in marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to sell and deliver, maintaining a vehicle for the use of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The suspects are Rogue Antonio Zapata, 43,
16001 Contillion Dr.
,
Houston
,
Texas
; Oscar Alcides Hernandez, 33,
1235 Breacrest St.
,
Houston
Texas
; and Victim Manuel Pacheco, 34,
846 Richview Dr.
,
Houston
,
Texas
.
They were jailed at the Duplin County Jail under bonds totaling $1,050,000 for each suspect.
Wallace commented, “I don’t think this would have happened had it not been for the cooperative effort of the folks actually involved with the task force in
Onslow
County
.”
He said he has information that the marijuana came from “south of the border” in
Mexico
.
“This goes back to what we have preached for some time now, that there seems to be a major artery of drug trafficking that is coming from south of the border into Duplin and surrounding counties,” Wallace said
He said he hopes that the cases will be adopted by federal authorities which would result in more prison time, if they are convicted, than they would get in state courts.
“Then we will proceed to have these folks deported back to
Mexico
,” Wallace said.
The task force includes officers of police departments in Beulaville, Wallace,
Warsaw
,
Mount
Olive
, Kenansville, and Richlands, and the Duplin County Sheriff’s Office, State Bureau of Investigation and N.C. Probation and Parole Division.
“We are excited about the task force and we hope there are many more drug seizures and arrest to come from this cooperation,” Wallace said.
Task force representatives at a press conference Friday at the Duplin County Sheriff’s Office were Capt. John Lewis and Sgt. Mike Washington of the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office; Capt. Larry Holland of the Warsaw Police; Chief Ralph Schroeder of the Mount Olive Police; Dennis Guy of Probation and Parole; Chief Mike Webster of the Kenansville Police; and Chief Hal Williams of the Beulaville Police.
“We also want to recognize that the SBI and Wallace Police Department are participating in this, and the Highway Patrol helped us with the marijuana seizure,” Wallace said.
He said that before the task force was organized managers of the different agencies realized that many times the departments were duplicating their efforts in fighting drugs.
“We were trying to find a way that we could work together and share information more readily and put our resources together, and we decided this task force would be a good opportunity for us,” Wallace said.
Williams said, “Individually, these small departments don’t have enough officers to do it, but as a collective agency, we can accomplish many things.”
Webster commented, “With combining our resources, this marijuana seizure is just a small tip of the iceberg. I think the task force will have a big impact on drugs.”
Guy remarked, “We have found out that this definitely improves communication between departments since Probation and Parole often deal with some of the same people as these agencies.”
Schroeder said, “A lot of times our crime goes across the county line into
Duplin
County
. Through this task force we know if we have something going on we can get officers if we need them and our department can help other agencies.”
Schroeder said Wayne County Sheriff Carey A. Winders is also cooperative in providing assistance to Mount Olive Police in the battle against drugs.
“The Wayne County Drug Squad, comprised of officers of the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office and Goldsboro Police, is available when we need them,” Schroeder said. “Now, one of our drug officers is on the Duplin task force as well as the drug squad in
Wayne
County
.”
Holland
said, “I am just glad to see this come together, for us to be able to put our resources together and get drugs off the streets.”
Lewis commented, “When you get a bigger team together, you can fight bigger battles, and we are trying hard to take the drug traffickers off the road.”
Meanwhile, Wallace, commenting on smaller police departments in the county that are not members of the task force, said, “Some just don’t have the resources to commit to this task force, however, we have assured them that if they identify a drug problem in their town or community, we will certainly try to help them in that regard. We are not going to forget about them.”
