Drug-trafficking ring exposed in Mount Olive
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on September 1, 2017 1:36 PM
Victor Valenzuela Rojas
Juan Francisco Hernandez-Garcia
Luis Angel Hernandez
Eleazar Pena
MOUNT OLIVE ---- The home at 713 Maysville School Road in Duplin County is tucked back nearly 300 yards off the roadway, behind a large corn field.
Around back sits a parked tractor-trailer.
As officers approached the home in a nighttime raid on Aug. 25, they spotted two Hispanic men outside near the tractor-trailer. The rig showed signs of tampering.
A multi-agency sting involving officers from Wayne, Lenoir and Duplin counties, as well as agents with the State Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, came to a head last Friday, uncovering what law enforcement is calling part of an "intensive drug trafficking organization."
By the end of the night, four men ---- three of them from Texas ---- were in custody, 1.5 kilos of suspected cocaine were recovered and an undisclosed amount of cash was seized in what appears to have been part of a large-scale cocaine trafficking operation.
The homeowner, Victor Valenzuela Rojas, is charged with two counts of trafficking in powder cocaine, possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver powder cocaine, maintaining a dwelling place to keep a controlled substance and conspiracy to traffic in powder cocaine.
Juan Francisco Hernandez-Garcia and Eleazer Pena, both of Laredo, Texas, and Luis Angle Hernandez, of Arlington, Texas, were all three charged with the same offenses as Rojas.
Wayne County Sheriff Larry Pierce said DEA task force officer First Sgt. Michael Dawson initiated the case.
After officers found the two Hispanic men outside by the tractor-trailer, they went to the home and asked two other Hispanic men to come to the door.
A press release issued Friday said officers conducted interviews with all four men at the home.
It also said the officers were given written permission to search the house for illegal narcotics, tools, large amounts of cash accumulated from the sale of drugs, weapons and any other items associated with drug trafficking.
They walked through it and found large amounts of cash in bedrooms inside the house.
A Wayne County Sheriff's Office K-9 was brought in and alerted on the trailer and several areas inside the house.
Officers then applied for, obtained and executed a search warrant, and found the 1.5 kilos of suspected cocaine and large amounts of cash inside the home and tucked in three axles of the tractor-trailer.
Pierce said the DEA is not disclosing how much cash was recovered during the raid at this time.
"Other than what the release says, I really can't go into any more detail right now," Pierce said.
Pierce also said the DEA is not releasing the specifics of how the cocaine found its way into Mount Olive.
Each man was arrested, charged and put in the Duplin County Jail under a $235,000 secured bond.