THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030481
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: 63 lines
Two Kill Devil Hills residents were arrested Thursday on drug charges as part of a three-month, countywide investigation into drug trafficking.
More arrests could come today.
Willie Skenes III, 18, and Zoe Will, 19, both of 1603 Princess Anne Drive, were arrested and charged with one count of trafficking cocaine. The two are scheduled to make their first court appearance today in Dare County District Court. They are each being held on $10,000 secured bond.
Rodney Midgett, Dare County Sheriff's Office chief deputy, said Skenes and Will were arrested Thursday afternoon without incident. Other charges may be filed against the two following a session of a Dare County grand jury Monday, Midgett said.
``There was more than one buy of cocaine by undercover officers,'' Midgett said. ``That will come before the grand jury on Monday.''
Agents from the Dare County Sheriff's Office and the State Bureau of Investigation and local police in Manteo and Kill Devil Hills carried out the investigation. Additional arrests are expected today and in the coming weeks as a result of the undercover effort.
Dare County Sheriff Albert ``Bert'' Austin said the undercover investigation targeted individuals suspected of selling narcotics to street-level dealers.
The investigation cost $5,000, with funds coming from the sheriff's office and the SBI. Unlike past sting operations that involved a mass roundup of suspects, this campaign will focus on individuals.
``In the past, we've had operations where you pick up big numbers of suspects,'' Austin said. ``But in this case, the little groups are necessarily connected to one another. We hope that by dealing with suspects one-on-one, we'll be able to come up with more information that will help us down the road.''
Midgett said a more individualized approach has proven to be more effective than massive drug operations.
``We don't like doing a mass arrest,'' Midgett said. ``A lot of people like giving fancy names to operations. But that's Hollywood. The last time we did a one-on-one operation, one person we didn't even know was selling turned himself in and said `I know I'm on the list.' If you do a big operation, a lot of the suspects will scatter.''
Austin said that along with the work done by undercover officers and informants, patrol units played a key role in the three-month probe, which ended in mid-December.
``Patrol divisions have been very active in doing surveillance, following up on tips from within the community, as well as what we gathered from informants. They've been an important part of this investigation.''
Midgett said much of the narcotics being sold in the area is believed to have come from the Greenville and Hampton Roads areas. However, the second-tier drug traffickers may have ties to other states. He declined to say what other states may be involved, because it could possibly jeopardize investigations in those states.
However, he expressed hope that the Dare County arrests would lead to information that would help quell drug trafficking in other jurisdictions.
``We will turn any information we get over to those other states,'' Midgett said. ``How successful we will be, only time will tell.''
Under North Carolina law, the charge of trafficking involves the sale of at least one ounce of an illegal substance.
KEYWORDS: ARREST DRUGS ILLEGAL TRAFFICKING