The Northampton Sheriff’s Office conducted a massive heroin bust last week. Following a 10-month investigation, officers raided a suspected drug home along Highway 258. The officers claim to have found 78 heroin bricks, 5.3 ounces of cocaine, 4.2 ounces of crack, an AK-47, a handgun and five vehicles at the residence.
In carrying out the drug raid, officers only arrested one man — a 22-year-old — whom authorities have since charged with drug trafficking cocaine and heroin. Authorities described the young man as a “high level drug dealer,” but said that they “wouldn’t call him a kingpin.”
Soon after his arrest, the young man posted $525,000 to meet his bond. After arriving home, news reporters tried to interview him, but he did not have any comments.
Talking about the drug bust and the overall drug enforcement mission of area officers, police said that opiate drugs are an epidemic in the tri-county area, and people are dying because of it. Nevertheless, police are hopeful. They say that the problem is beginning to change.
Regardless what news reports say, and regardless what kind of facts and evidence the prosecution has built up against a North Carolina resident accused of drug crimes, all accused persons will have the legal right to defend him- or herself against the charges in court. In fact, no person will be viewed as guilty nor punished until — and only if — the prosecution can prove him or her to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In many situations, the burden of proof is extremely difficult for the prosecution to overcome.
Source: wavy.com, “North Carolina drug bust yields 78 bricks of heroin, cocaine and guns,” Jason Marks, May 16, 2017