Seat belt stop nets 3 kilos of cocaine
By Lee Williams
Published in News on May 25, 2007 1:45 PM
A Goldsboro man is being held in the Wayne County Jail under $1 million bond after police allegedly found three kilos of cocaine in his truck during a seat belt check on Ninth and Tampa streets Thursday.
Fransisco Baltasar, 44, was charged with driving on a revoked license, trafficking in cocaine by transporting and trafficking in cocaine by possession.
Goldsboro police set up a checkpoint for the Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement campaign in the 1300 block of Ninth Street off Wayne Memorial Drive at about 10 a.m., Goldsboro police Sgt. G.N. Lynch said. C-Shift Officers Cpl. C.A. Jackson, J.T. Beeken, J.R. Hooker and K-9 Officer, Ben, were participating in the checkpoint.
Baltasar drove up to the checkpoint in his black 1996 Chevrolet S-10 pickup at about 11:20 a.m., and he was arrested for having no license.
Police searched the vehicle and found the cocaine in the console. Officers estimated its street value at $60,000.
Hooker was credited with the find, which is the largest amount of cocaine seized by patrol officers at a Click It or Ticket checkpoint, Goldsboro police Chief Tim Bell said.
"You never know what's going to turn up when you do a license check," Bell said.
The Click It or Ticket campaign will continue until June 3. On June 1, the Goldsboro Police Department will conduct a series of license checks designed to get drunken drivers off the roads.
Maj. Mike Hopper, who heads the patrol division, said not everyone sees the value in license checkpoints, but many drivers they encounter do.
"A lot of people say it's a waste of time doing checkpoints and that we should be out looking for real criminals," Hopper said. "One or two complain, but the majority of the people we encounter are appreciative that we are out there being visible and taking the bad guys off the streets. A lot of people feel like if I'm abiding by the law, other people should, too."