Home | Community | Message Board


This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.


Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
OfflineWronguy
Registered: 03/05/05
Posts: 4,450
Last seen: 12 years, 8 months
Deputy, 4 men charged with dealing cocaine
    #6172815 - 10/15/06 06:01 PM (17 years, 5 months ago)

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-778715.html

Deputy, 4 men charged with dealing cocaine

DURHAM -- The Durham County Sheriff's Office has charged one of its own deputies and four other men with dealing cocaine from a bar on North Roxboro Street.

Deputies lodged the charges after raiding La Zona, 2825 N. Roxboro St., Friday night. Capt. Paul Martin of the Sheriff's Office said the arrests came as part of a months-long investigation that is still under way.

The club's owner, Deputy Michael P. Owens, of 4800 University Drive, Apt. 29-G, faces counts of trafficking in cocaine, conspiracy to traffic cocaine and maintaining a building for the sale and delivery of drugs. He was ordered held in the Durham County Jail pending a $50,000 secured bond.

Martin said the other men arrested were employees or regular patrons of La Zona. All four were charged with trafficking between 1 and 7 ounces of cocaine. They were Sergio Garcia Perez, 23; Mario Garcia Segura, 21; and Isidoro Vallinas Domingues, 25; all of 3106 E. Geer St.; and Jose Manuel Ramirez, 21, of 453 California St. in Belhaven in the eastern part of the state.

Like Owens, they were ordered held in the Durham County Jail pending separate $50,000 secured bonds.

Owens has been suspended from the Sheriff's Office and will soon become the focus of an internal-affairs investigation, Martin said. Friday's raid was conducted by the department's narcotics unit.

Sheriff Worth Hill said the arrest of Owens made Friday "a sad day" and added that he was "very disappointed" in the deputy.

"It's a shame. All the many law-enforcement officers who serve their community and do their duty with honor, and then one of our own tarnishes the badge and violates the trust people put in us as law-enforcement officers," Hill said. "We're very disappointed and we can't tolerate something like that. To me, drugs are about the worst thing you can be involved with because it hurts so many people and causes so many crimes."

Martin said the investigation began after the Sheriff's Office "received information" about the case, and that deputies undertook surveillance and consulted informants before moving in. They also conducted drug buys at the club and seized about 1.4 ounces of powdered cocaine Friday night, he said.

The Sheriff's Office also worked with an FBI task force based in Raleigh. Martin declined to say what federal agents did to help, and said "anything's possible" when asked if the men might face federal charges.

Hill said deputies kept the FBI informed "in case there [were] some other charges that might come into play."

La Zona caters to local Hispanics, and "you could call it a cabaret club or something," Martin said, adding that it was a place people could go to drink and dance. The club occupies part of a four-bay commercial building on the west side of North Roxboro Street between East Maynard Avenue and East Edgewood Drive.

The bar was locked up Saturday afternoon. The space previously housed Somewhere Else Sports Bar & Billiards, and before that an establishment called 48 Hours.

Owens has worked for the Sheriff's Office since 2003, joining the force after a 10- or 11-year stint as a state wildlife enforcement officer, Martin said.

Since going to work for Hill, Owens has worked mainly in its civil division. He was responsible for enforcing liens issued by the county Tax Administrator's Office, Martin said, adding that Owens had never worked with narcotics for the Sheriff's Office.

"He seemed like a great guy, a hard worker," Hill said. "Every assignment you gave him, he gave it 100 percent. Everybody liked him. I would've lost money if I was a betting man that he would've been one to do something like this. But you never know, there are so many temptations out there. Something like this happens, it really sucks the wind out of you."

La Zona is in the city limits, but the Durham Police Department wasn't involved in or privy to the investigation. Hill said deputies deliberately kept city police in the dark to ensure secrecy.

"The least people know about something like this, the better off you are," he said. "Too many people know and it gets out, it'll hurt your case."

Durham Police Chief Steve Chalmers said he hadn't heard of anything illegal going on at La Zona, though he'd have to check with officers in his department's special operations unit to be sure. He had no complaints about Hill's decision not to give police advance notice.

"I can understand with an investigation like this why the sheriff would want to keep that close to his chest," Chalmers said. "We certainly don't have a problem with that."

Neither Martin nor Hill ruled out the possibility of additional arrests, and offered only vague comments when asked if other law-enforcement officers were involved in illegal activity.

"Somebody's always saying something, whether it's true or not true, but we don't have any hard evidence right now in that regard," Hill said. "There's always the temptation out there. But you can't go by rumor alone. You have to prove it. We haven't heard any more in our agency, even though we're always on the lookout."

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1


Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Minister's assistant, 7 others charged with drug offences AnnoA 1,102 0 09/17/04 05:32 AM
by Anno
* Pair charged after police seize pills, pot and mushrooms 2Experimental 1,541 1 08/19/04 03:15 AM
by muse_sick
* Jury decides cocaine dealer must forfeit lottery winnings motamanM 3,668 10 05/21/13 11:40 PM
by Ogla
* Ky. Police Chief Indicted on Meth Charges veggieM 937 0 04/09/05 12:33 PM
by veggie
* $10 million in cocaine seized from semitrailer veggieM 2,382 1 05/04/05 09:28 PM
by LethalX5
* Man, 80, faces charges of selling crack veggieM 1,205 1 03/25/05 08:09 PM
by tomk
* Drive-through employee arrested on drug charge motamanM 2,105 1 05/16/03 11:03 AM
by Urb
* ASU students arrested on drug charges AnnoA 1,999 0 11/26/04 10:40 AM
by Anno

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: motaman, veggie, Alan Rockefeller, Mostly_Harmless
971 topic views. 0 members, 5 guests and 8 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2024 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.028 seconds spending 0.007 seconds on 13 queries.