After 21 Months in Jail, a Cleared Man Goes Home RALEIGH - For 21 months, Gerardo Vilchez's life was contained inside a jail cell as he awaited a trial on trafficking charges that stemmed from one of Wake County's biggest drug busts. He was set free last week, after a Wake jury rejected accusations by a Wake sheriff's investigator and prosecutors that Vilchez conspired to transport 32 kilograms of cocaine, or more than 70 pounds, in the tires of a passenger bus he drove from northern Mexico. [continues 951 words]
RALEIGH - A regretful Wake County juror found himself on the wrong side of a law Wednesday when a Superior Court judge held him in contempt for looking up the chemical makeup of cocaine in a textbook. Barry E. Taylor, 60, of Wake Forest, a chemist by trade, was fined $450 by Judge W. Osmond Smith III after Taylor tried to do his own research in a drug-trafficking case in which he was a juror. Smith had the option of putting Taylor in jail but decided against it. [continues 201 words]
RALEIGH - A federal review was launched Friday into an incident in which a Drug Enforcement Administration agent forced a drug trafficking suspect to pose for a photograph wearing a sombrero and holding a Mexican flag. George Holding, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, announced in a news release Friday that he was "troubled" by an article in Thursday's News & Observer about the case. He has asked the Department of Justice, which oversees both the U.S. Attorney's Office and the DEA, to determine whether Jorge Hernandez-Villalvazo's civil rights were violated. "Regardless of what crime an individual may have committed, all are entitled to humane and respectful treatment by the criminal justice system," Holding stated. Although the photograph was taken in the spring of 2005, its existence wasn't made public until this week. [continues 372 words]
RALEIGH -- A Raleigh-based Drug Enforcement Administration agent made a Hispanic suspect put on a sombrero and hold a Mexican flag and then took his picture, the suspect's attorney said. The defense attorney, Jeff Cutler, said a prosecutor and law enforcement officers confirmed the existence of the 2005 photograph of Jorge Hernandez-Villalvazo during a pre-trial meeting last week. Within minutes, the prosecutor offered a plea deal, avoiding a trial and freeing Hernandez-Villalvazo. Hernandez-Villalvazo left the Wake County jail Friday, two years after his arrest on a charge of conspiring to traffic cocaine. "They humiliated him," Cutler said. [continues 71 words]
A 05 Photo Of The Mexican Man Sealed A Plea Deal That Freed Him Last Week RALEIGH - A Raleigh-based Drug Enforcement Administration agent had a Mexican suspect put on a sombrero and hold a Mexican flag and then took his picture, the suspect's attorney said. The defense attorney, Jeff Cutler, said a prosecutor and law enforcement officers confirmed the existence of the 2005 photograph of Jorge Hernandez-Villalvazo during a pretrial meeting last week. Within minutes, the prosecutor offered a plea deal, avoiding a trial and freeing Hernandez-Villalvazo. [continues 564 words]
SBI Probes Assault Allegation GARNER - Three undercover drug detectives with the Wake County Sheriff's Office resigned Wednesday following accusations that they assaulted a Garner man last month in a restaurant parking lot. Katie Broda, Kevin Hinton and Christopher Roth all submitted their resignations Wednesday, Sheriff Donnie Harrison said at a news conference. The trio had been on desk duty since Aug. 26, when Robert D. Wise said he was attacked by the detectives after they took issue with his family car being parked in two spots outside an Applebee's restaurant on U.S. 70. [continues 362 words]
Drug Bust Is One Of State's Largest A three-year federal drug investigation led to a traffic stop on U.S. 1 in Wake Forest on Wednesday and the discovery of 220 pounds of cocaine -- one of North Carolina's largest drug busts in recent history -- inside a recreational vehicle and the car being towed behind it. Federal authorities announced the arrests Thursday of five men suspected of being members of a drug trafficking ring -- three from Wake Forest -- in connection with the seizure of 100 individually wrapped kilogram packets of cocaine. [continues 210 words]
Charges Include Arson, Racketeering Three former deputies with the Robeson County Sheriff's Office were arrested Friday as part of a federal investigation into the theft of thousands of dollars during traffic stops, the delivery of drugs to office informants and the arson of two homes and a business. Steven Ray Lovin, 36, Charles Thomas "C.T." Strickland, 39, and Roger Hugh Taylor, 36, were named in the federal indictment on arson and racketeering charges unsealed Friday. The arrests came after a three-and-a-half-year investigation by agents with the Internal Revenue Service and State Bureau of Investigation into corruption in the Sheriff's Office, said Frank Whitney, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. "Nothing jeopardizes our personal safety or undermines the enforcement of the law more than illegal conduct of sworn law enforcement officers," Whitney said in a news release. [continues 293 words]
McALLEN - A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer is accused of allowing pickup trucks laden with hundreds of pounds of marijuana to pass through his inspection lane at the Progreso checkpoint, an FBI agent said Friday during a detention hearing Friday for the officer. Lizandro Martinez, 43, of McAllen, pleaded innocent to the nine counts of drug trafficking he was charged with when he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dorina Ramos on Friday. Members of Martinez's family, who were present in the courtroom, declined to comment. [continues 345 words]
