We see it over and over while perusing Raleigh’s News & Observer: stories of legal troubles and criminal charges beginning with a traffic stop.
A recent example began on Interstate 440 where a Garner, North Carolina, man was pulled over. Wake County sheriff’s deputies then searched his car and said they found three kilograms of cocaine. The 25-year-old now faces two drug trafficking charges.
He’s also accused of using his car to keep or sell cocaine.
The man was pulled over late Friday night in a 2001 Pontiac near Capital Boulevard.
Law enforcement officials later obtained a search warrant for the man’s home and then filed another criminal charge against him: maintaining a dwelling for keeping and selling narcotics.
He’s scheduled to appear in court today after being held over the weekend in lieu of a $700,000 bail.
The News & Observer reported in a separate article on an arrest that also began on a Raleigh street. The 52-year-old man was arrested after a Monday morning traffic stop.
A police dog was then used by officers; the dog apparently detected the presence of methamphetamine in the pick-up truck.
Officers reported finding nearly an ounce of the substance in the vehicle.
The next day, armed with a search warrant, officers entered the man’s Spring Street home. There they seized a shotgun, a phone and a notepad, they said.
He has been charged with possession of meth with intent to manufacture, sell or distribute, along with using his truck to keep or sell the drug.
Both of these men face the possibility of prison if convicted on the charges they face. Both would do well to have an attorney examine the circumstances of the traffic stops, searches and arrests before they speak with prosecutors or police.
Source: News & Observer, “Wake County deputies seize 3 kilograms of cocaine, arrest Garner resident,” Nov. 25, 2013