The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, NC

Local News

September 19, 2008

Deputies seize cocaine worth $100,000

Three Walstonburg men held

T. J. ROYAL

Edgecombe County Sheriff's deputies arrested three Walstonburg men and seized a kilogram of powder cocaine worth $100,000 on Wednesday.

It was the largest drug bust made in Edgecombe so far this year, Edgecombe County Sheriff James Knight said.

Lorenso Gonzales Baker, 21, Cirilo Espinoza Ortuno, 22, and Melsar Penaloza Millan, 21, were each charged with five felony drug counts; trafficking cocaine by possession, trafficking cocaine by delivery, conspiracy to traffic cocaine, possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine and maintaining a vehicle for the transportation of cocaine.

Knight said the men were stopped by deputies around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday on Faith Baptist Church Road near Pinetops. They were arrested without incident, and the 1996 Acura they were driving was confiscated along with the drugs.

Knight said the cocaine was stored in a hidden compartment of the vehicle's middle console. The drugs only could be accessed by sliding the console back, toward the back seat.

It slid back only when the front passenger window was rolled down and a magnet was placed to a certain part of the console at the same time, Knight said.

The hidden compartment was "the most elaborate (one) ever located in Edgecombe County," he added.

The arrests and seizure were the result of a long-term investigation by his Office and the State Bureau of Investigation. Knight said the Greenville Police Department and the SBI assisted with the takedown.

Knight said the suspects were responsible for distribution of large amounts of cocaine in Edgecombe and Wilson counties, and the northern part of Pitt County. "This arrest makes a hard hit on the cocaine supplies in these areas," Knight added.

Baker, Ortuno and Millan are being held in the Edgecombe County Detention Center, each placed under a $1 million secured bond.

"I'd like to express my sincere appreciation to each officer involved in helping to make this arrest, for it takes a collaborative effort from all of us," Knight said.

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