10 Arrested After Undercover Investigation

BY SARA PITZER
SALISBURY POST

The Rowan County Sheriff's department arrested 10 people in the Foster Road area of northwest Rowan County Friday afternoon in a drug bust involving 14 different agencies. Information on specific charges will not be available until Monday.

The action came after five months of undercover activity by the narcotics unit of the sheriff's department in cooperation with undercover officers from other agencies. The officers and Sheriff George Wilhelm bought drugs in the area known to crack cocaine users as an open air drug market.

It's an area of dilapidated and abandoned trailers, scrub pine, hard-packed clay instead of lawns, abandoned cars and barrels overflowing with garbage. Skinny dogs watched the activity from a distance without responding to any of it much.

The team served search warrants at nine different locations on Foster Road, Needmore Road and South River Church Road.

Earlier, Wilhelm had bought crack cocaine at two different addresses on Jan. 11 that led to a search warrant two days later. Officers arrested two people and seized 3.4 grams of cocaine.

''I told them I wanted 20 and they knew what to do,'' he said.

Friday's searches and arrests, involving 65 officers, add up to one of the biggest operations in a decade, Major T.D. Bost said. Drug activity in the area is common knowledge.''The neighbors have been complaining for 10 years,'' he said.

As officers moved handcuffed suspects and packed them into a police van, Capt. Dean Combs of the Rowan County Detention Center said people had been driving by and applauding. He said taking in the arrested people would put the number of people in the center over the limit. ''But we've got to get them off the street,'' he added.

While officers loaded suspects into the van, a number of undercover officers wearing blue rubber gloves and black ski masks to hide their faces began searching the trailers where earlier they had bought drugs. One officer whose face had a few new-looking nicks said he had just shaved off the beard he wore working under cover. Bost said the dealers ''were selling to high-ranking officers.''

An earlier raid last August resulted in six arrests and multiple drug charges.

In addition to the Rowan County Sheriff's department, the following agencies were involved: Salisbury Police Department, Kannapolis Police Department, Iredell County Sheriff's Department, Davie County Sheriff's Department, Spencer Police Department, Granite Quarry Police Department, Cleveland Police Department, East Spencer, N.C. Highway Patrol, Rowan ABC Police, N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement, N.C. National Guard and N.C. Probation. Rowan County EMS and rescue squards also were on the scene.

By 2:30 p.m. school buses were running along Foster, Needmore and South River Church roads. A teen-age girl checked a mailbox by the road, waved to a passing car with a big smile and ran to a house in front of one of the trailers where officers had made arrests. Police cars sat in the driveway next to house. She let herself in the front door with a key and when another school bus stopped about 20 minutes later, the students hurried out to meet two small children.

Watching the school bus drive away, Combs said, ''This is what it's all about.''