Citizen complaints have once again been the catalyst for taking methamphetamine off the street and putting those who purportedly sell it — and use it — behind bars.
Sampson County drug agents, acting on some of those complaints, initiated an investigation in the Roseboro area that culminated in the arrest this week of two Sampson County women. Taken into custody were Alisha Miller, 25, of 311 Bulldog Lane, Roseboro and Teresa Parker, 39, of 1225 Microwave Tower Road, Roseboro.
Miller was charged with possession and distribution of a precursor chemical, possession with intent to sell and deliver methamphetamine and maintaining a dwelling place for drugs, all felonies. She was additionally charged with simple possession of marijuana, simple possession of a Schedule II controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
She was jailed under a $250,000 bond.
Parker was charged with possession of methamphetamine, a felony, and placed under a $35,000 bond.
The pair were taken into custody at Miller’s Bulldog Lane residence after officers executed a search warrant there around 4:30 Thursday afternoon.
Discovered in Miller’s possession, and later seized by officers, was 5.3 grams of meth, 6.2 grams of marijuana and 52 dosage units of Xanax.
Parker, sheriff’s reports note, was found with 1.3 grams of meth in her possession.
The arrests come on the heels of an investigation initiated after citizens lodged complaints regarding the Bulldog Lane residence.
“Our drug investigators started the investigation after we received some complaints,” said Sheriff’s Dept. Cpl. Marcus Smith. “Those agents put a lot of work into this. They had enough probable cause to get a search warrant and they executed it around 4:53 p.m. Thursday.”
The two Sampson women are the latest in several recent methamphetamine arrests in the county, something Sheriff Jimmy Thornton addressed earlier this month.
“For a while, there had been a lull in the production of meth around here,” Thornton said in an earlier interview, attributing that fact to his department’s heightened scrutiny over the past several years. “We’ve been out there and we’ve been hard at it, and it became pretty clear to dealers that we were looking for the stuff and going to get rid of it.”
But the sheriff said his officers were beginning to see meth creeping back into the county once again. “But we’re out there and we are going to shut it down if we find a lab or we find someone using or selling the stuff.”
Thornton, as he always does, offered strong praise to the community for its diligence in lodging complaints and providing tips that help officers make the arrests and destroy labs.
“I’ve said this many times, and it’s true, we cannot do any of this without the help of citizens willing to come forward and provide us information. We always need their help … those tips and complaints make a difference in our ability to find these people and stop this problem,” the sheriff stressed.
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