Authorities arrested a convicted felon in the country illegally today after finding 28 pounds of marijuana as well as cocaine at a home in southeastern Rowan County.
The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Unit served a search warrant at 440 Meadow Lane near N.C. 152 after completing an investigation of a man the agency called “a major cocaine and marijuana trafficker.”
Along with the marijuana, detectives seized about a fifth of an ounce of cocaine packaged for sale and two handguns.
Julio Cesar Jaramillo Cruz, 26, is charged with trafficking in marijuana, possession with intent to sell and distribute marijuana, possession with intent to sell and distribute cocaine, maintaining a dwelling to keep, store and sell a controlled substance, and possession of a firearm by a felon, all felonies, and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.
Investigators determined that Cruz, a convicted felon, had illegally re-entered the U.S. after being deported. The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has been notified and Cruz is in the Rowan County jail under $100,000 bond.