One in custody from MO drug raid
By Kenneth Fine
Published in News on October 10, 2007 1:45 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- One of three suspects not captured in Friday's raid is now in custody, Mount Olive police officials said.
Police Maj. Brian Rhodes said Danielle Deboris Vann, 26, turned himself in at the Wayne County Sheriff's Office Tuesday afternoon and is currently being held at the Wayne County Jail under a $10,000 secured bond.
That leaves only two suspects at large just a few days after Operation Clean Streets resulted in the arrests of some of Wayne County's most "notorious" drug offenders.
Mount Olive police officials had hoped to bring in Travis Lemont Barksdale, 28 and Robert Thomas Edwards, 19, Friday during raids on three town residences.
The men are wanted in connection with an alleged drug operation -- the use, manufacture and sale of cocaine and crack -- police say they confirmed through more than four months of undercover work and surveillance.
Friday, Mount Olive officers joined with the Goldsboro and Smith-field police departments, Wayne and Duplin County sheriff's offices, DEA and ATF to arrest multiple suspects on charges including 14 counts of conspiring to sell and deliver a controlled substance, eight counts of trafficking, two counts of selling and delivering controlled substances, three counts of maintaining a dwel-ling for the sale of controlled substances, two counts of manufacturing controlled substances, two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and five counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Mount Olive police Chief Ralph Schroeder called the operation a "big one" and said he believes it delivered a blow to the illegal drug trade, one he feels is connected to recent thefts and homicides in town.
But there is still work to do, as the search for those still at large continues.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Barksdale or Edwards is asked to contact one of the agencies involved in Friday's raid, mainly the Mount Olive Police Department at 658-5031 or Crime Stoppers at 735-2255.