
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 25, 1991                   TAG: 9103250307
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`TRAVEL PLANS' TRIP UP 2 DRUG SUSPECTS ON I-77

The travel plans of two drug suspects from New Jersey helped land them in jail Sunday morning, state Trooper Mike Musser said.

Musser clocked the pair, who listed their home as Plainfield, N.J., going 82 in a 65-mph zone on northbound Interstate 77 in Wythe County about 7:30 a.m. They told him they rode a bus from New Jersey to South Carolina, where they rented a car for a trip to West Virginia.

"I knew that was bogus," Musser said. "No one rides a bus to South Carolina to get a rental car to West Virginia."

He then got a dispatcher to run the names of the suspects through a crime computer.

One, a 17-year-old, was wanted on a fugitive warrant from New York. The other, LeRoy Anthony Dupree, the 20-year-old driver of the car, had a South Carolina driver's license with an outstanding fine on it in Augusta County.

Musser's suspicion was first aroused when he pulled his police cruiser in behind the car near the interchange with Interstate 81. When Musser walked up to a car, the 17-year-old was lying down on the seat. He popped up with about $761 in cash in his hand. He appeared to have been asleep.

"Anthony told me to give him $55 to pay off his traffic ticket," Musser recalled him saying.

Musser was buying none of that.

After learning that Dupree had a suspended license, Musser walked back to his patrol car to write him a ticket.

Soon, Trooper Tracy Counts pulled in behind Musser, took the 17-year-old to his car and shut off his radio until Musser could ask dispatchers to run a criminal history on the youth.

After that, Trooper Dave Brooks arrived with a state police narcotics dog named Flower, who dug persistently at a suitcase they had pulled from the trunk of the suspects' car.

Inside, police found 5 ounces of crack cocaine.

Both the 17-year-old and Dupree were charged with possessing crack cocaine with intent to distribute. Dupree was jailed in Wythe County, state police said, and the teen-ager was taken to a juvenile detention center in Christiansburg.

by CNB