THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 18, 1997 TAG: 9701180390
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: 63 lines
It's believed to be biggest drug seizure ever in Currituck County
Currituck County sheriff's deputies seized 92 pounds of marijuana this week in what is believed to be the biggest drug seizure in county history.
``This is the biggest bust that Currituck County has ever had in the 26 years that I've been in law enforcement,'' Sheriff Glenn Brinkley said Friday.
Robert Edward Phillips, 48, of Powells Point was arrested Wednesday while parked outside a restaurant in Moyock. He was charged with trafficking marijuana and maintaining a vehicle for the purpose of selling, delivering and storing marijuana.
Phillips was released on $100,000 bail and is scheduled to be tried on Feb. 5.
The seized marijuana was packaged in one-pound bags of loose plant and two-pound and four-pound blocks of compressed pot. The street value was estimated at more than $206,000.
Phillips' arrest this week culminated a 30-day intensive police investigation by narcotics Detectives D.R. Nichols and R.A. Show of the Sheriff's Department.
The men had to work ``day and night, sometimes in adverse conditions, to ensure the marijuana would not reach the streets to be distributed to Currituck County residents,'' the sheriff said. ``It took a lot of overtime, but it was worth it.''
The pot was seized from a 1988 Toyota 4-Runner at a restaurant just south of the Virginia line.
Brinkley said the county's last big drug bust was in the 1970s, when some 15 or 16 pounds of pot were seized.
Drug arrests are up in Currituck, which recently added a narcotics unit to its staff and three all-purpose K-9 dogs that sometimes help in drug raids.
Currituck County is becoming a popular place for drug transactions, Brinkley said, because increased law enforcement in New York is forcing drug dealers to find new locales.
Incident reports dropped by 233 from 1,671 in 1995 to 1,438 in 1996. However, arrests are up, from 917 in 1995 to 1,023 a year later.
Currituck is attractive to drug dealers because of its proximity to Hampton Roads and easy access through numerous waterways, the sheriff said. ``We're too close to the line. We're prime.''
Sheriff's deputies had arrested Phillips on similar charges last August. At that time he was charged with conspiracy to sell and deliver marijuana and maintaining a dwelling to keep and sell a controlled substance.
On Sept. 25, a Currituck County District Court judge dropped the conspiracy charge. The judge reduced the second charge to possession of drug paraphernalia and gave Phillips a 45-day suspended sentence.
Phillips also was ordered to pay $3,200 to the Sheriff's Department and not possess any controlled substances unless prescribed by a physician.
Phillips also had his 1986 Toyota 4-Runner confiscated, according to court records. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Currituck County Sheriff Glenn Brinkley, center, and Detectives D.R.
Nichols, left, and R.A. Shaw, right, with the 92 pounds of marijuana
seized from a car parked in Moyock this week.
KEYWORDS: DRUG ARREST MARIJUANA CURRRITUCK COUNTY NORTH
CAROLINA