Pubdate: Mon, 24 Mar 2003
Source: News & Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2003 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.news-observer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/304
Author: Associated Press

DRUG PATROLS INTENSIFY

Davidson Deputies Implement New Tactics

LEXINGTON -- Just six weeks ago, some Davidson County sheriff's deputies 
took classes to learn how to find and seize drugs and cash on the 
interstate. Since then, the sheriff's office said it has seized about 
$400,000 and eight vehicles.

The biggest drug seizure by the six-person drug-interdiction unit came 
Friday afternoon, when deputies found 5 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside 
a battery of a car that they stopped on Interstate 85. The cocaine has a 
street value of about $1 million, deputies said.

"We're out here every day -- seven days a week," Sheriff Gerald Hege said. 
"We've barely been out of school six weeks."

Deputies from Davidson, Iredell, Alamance and Sampson counties have worked 
in one another's jurisdictions in recent weeks to search for drugs and 
large amounts of cash hidden in vehicles.

Iredell deputies were with Davidson deputies Friday when they found the 
cocaine.

Many of the drivers stopped on I-85 are pulled over for such actions as 
changing lanes without using a turn signal, weaving from side to side or 
having a cracked windshield.

Deputies such as Mark Vanzant of Davidson's drug-interdiction unit are 
trained to identify indicators of drug trafficking. If there are enough 
suspicious indicators at a traffic stop, deputies often run a dog around 
the vehicle to find drugs or weapons. Deputies said they do not like to 
give specifics about the things they look for, fearing that would provide 
helpful information to drug traffickers.

"We just have to have indicators," Vanzant said. "If we see something 
suspicious and we need the dog to confirm it, then we use the dog."

Deputies said that they don't assume anyone is a drug trafficker. "We don't 
know who's dealing drugs or not," Vanzant said.

The two men arrested Friday were in a Dodge Stratus that had 5 kilograms of 
cocaine hidden inside a second battery. There were marijuana seeds inside 
the battery, too, and the drugs were covered in grease -- a technique 
traffickers sometimes use in hopes that a dog will not smell the drugs, 
investigators said.

Deputies arrested Vermil Vargas, 31, and Misael Chavez Rodriguez, 26, 
according to the sheriff's office. The men, who had driver's licenses with 
Greensboro and Asheboro addresses, were traveling from Atlanta.

Their charges include three counts each of trafficking in cocaine. They 
were being held at Davidson County jail with bail set at $1 million each.

Sometimes there are no drugs in a vehicle, but thousands in cash. Last 
month deputies seized $19,420 from hidden compartments in a Toyota Corolla 
and the same day took $11,420 in cash from a 1995 Ford Thunderbird.

The sheriff's office notifies the Drug Enforcement Administration about the 
seizures, and 20 percent of the money goes to the federal government.

Hege said the sheriff's office can use forfeiture money to buy anything 
related to fighting drugs.

When deputies from one county are working in another, they split the 
forfeiture money. And there's a bonus to drug interdiction, deputies say. 
Their increased presence on I-85 has helped calm traffic and prevent 
accidents, deputies said.
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