Ex-cop caught with guns, drugs
By John Joyce
Published in News on September 7, 2014 1:50 AM
A former Kenly police officer has been charged after investigators seized more than $50,000 in drugs, weapons and cash from his home and car.
The Goldsboro/Wayne County Interagency Drug Task Force and Wayne County Sheriff's Office Aggressive Crime Enforcement Unit arrested Charles Edwards Phillips Sr., 43, of 1256 Aycock Dairy Farm Road, Friday.
Phillips is a former Kenly Police Department narcotics officer and a part-time employee of a local gun dealership, according to the investigators' report.
A Kenly Police Department badge and handcuffs also were seized from Phillips' home, along with 19 firearms, mostly assault rifles, but also shotguns, handguns and ammunition. The sheriff's office said the guns were most likely purchased legally from the gun dealer the suspect is employed by, but declined to say which shop.
Case officer Sgt. Matt Miller said the arrest came on the heels of an investigation that began about two weeks ago.
"There is a lot of work that goes into these (cases). You don't just go out there and cowboy up on a guy," he said.
A tip from a concerned citizen to Wayne County Sheriff Larry Pierce led to Miller and the A.C.E. team coordinating efforts with the drug squad to begin investigating Phillips.
The tip led to surveillance of the suspect, which in turn led to recorded drug purchases and the eventual traffic stop Friday that resulted in Phillips' arrest.
"The traffic stop took place at about 2:30 p.m. on N.C. Highway 581, somewhere between Pinkney and Nahunta," Miller said.
The traffic stop led to a consent to search of the vehicle and of Phillips' person. Investigators discovered pills and weapons in the car, pills and currency on Phillips and several more weapons and pills in his home and in storage.
Phillips is charged with several counts of Level III trafficking in opiates, all felonies. The weapons were seized in association with the selling of the drugs, Miller said.
Phillips has been placed in the Wayne County Jail under a $100,000 secured bond. A first appearance in Wayne County Court will be scheduled.
Among the weapons seized were several assault rifles fitted with scopes and various other accessories. One of the weapons, a Belgian-made assault rifle, has a holographic scope and a magnifier attached. Several of the weapons were loaded.
It has yet to be determined whether the weapons were purchased with money obtained from Phillips' alleged drug dealing activities.
Pierce said it will be up to the courts to decide what to do with all the weapons.
"They might give them to us for our use, or send them somewhere else. You just don't know," he said.