Traffic enforcement kept deputies busy over the weekend, resulting in several unrelated arrests for narcotics and a stolen catalytic converter.
The sheriff’s office reported that the HEAT Team was operating a checking station at Joe Brown Highway South and Rough and Ready Friday when a suspect allegedly tried to hide a needle.
When the car stopped at the checkpoint, the report said, a deputy who approached the car on the passenger side noticed a syringe with “clear liquid” in the center console. When the deputy went behind the car to check the license tag, “the needle disappeared,” the report said.
The driver, Dustin Duncan, admitted he had tried to hide the needle beside the seat.
Duncan was asked to step out of the car, and deputies saw a plastic wrapped package of a “crystal-like” substance in the seat. Duncan, 34, was detained for possession of crystal methamphetamine, failure to register the Ford Fusion automobile, and fictitious tags.
While he was being processed at the magistrate’s office, the report said,. Duncan was served with a warrant for failure to appear. Duncan was placed under a $2,000 secured bond. His address was listed as 7922 Old Stake Rd., Chadbourn.
In an unrelated case, a Spring Lake man likely didn’t make it to his wife’s birthday party Saturday, after deputies allegedly found MDMA, opiates and other drugs, along with a loaded handgun, during a traffic stop for speeding.
Crumpler told deputies that he was driving 72 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone because he late for his wife’s birthday. Crumpler appeared nervous while talking to deputies, and refused to allow them to search his vehicle. An external search by K9 Gunny indicated the presence of drugs, the report said. Deputies turned up 70 grams of Ecstacy, more than 12 grams of cocaine, 3.4 grams of meth, and 17.6 grams of marijuana inside. Deputies also found a loaded American Tactical handgun.
Weldon Crumpler, 32, of Spring Lake, was held without bond. He was charged with possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver Ecstacy, cocaine, and meth, as well as marijuana possession and driving with a revoked license. He was also cited for speeding.
The same day, a deputy stopping a car for a fictitious plate found drugs and a catalytic converter.
The report said the deputy was patrolling Andrew Jackson Highway and noticed the tag on a Ford automobile was registered to a Cadillac. The driver was slow to respond to the blue lights.
“The female passenger appeared to be hiding something,” the report said. The female was later identified as Wanda White, the report said.
The driver, Jason Britt, couldn’t explain why he delayed stopping for the deputy, the report said, and the “visibly nervous female passenger began digging around in her seat.”
Britt gave the deputy consent for a search, and when another deputy arrived to assist, they found substances that resembled crack cocaine and crystal methamphetamine, a glass smoking pipe and more suspected drugs in a purse under the passenger seat.
In the trunk of the car, the report said, deputies found a battery-powered saw and three catalytic converters.
White, 37, was charged with felony possession of cocaine, possession of meth, and drug paraphernalia. Her bond was set as $5,000. Her address was listed as 8796 Old 74, Evergreen.
Britt, 35, was charged with three counts of possession of a catalytic converter without a permit, and failure to appear. His bond was set at $6,000. Britt gave his address on arrest documents as 15147 N.C. 72 East, Orrum.
