TAX LAPSE PROVES COSTLY IN DRUG CASE

Goods seized for lack of stamp

DURHAM -- Drug dealers beware: If you don't buy a tax stamp to sell your
drugs "legally," the tax man will cometh. Merrick Robert Ward, 35, of 410
Quartz Drive, Durham, didn't plunk down $14,884.17 for a tax stamp for
heroin from the state Department of Revenue, so he lost all his electronic
equipment and $1,046 in cash.

"He was shocked," said Investigator Kelly Green of the Police Department's
Special Operations Division, which seized 51 grams of what tests showed to
be uncut heroin and 80 dosage bags from Ward's Jeep, pockets and home. "He
was confused about the law. He didn't understand. .. That's a very, very
large seizure of heroin."

Under state law, drug dealers are required to buy tax stamps for their
products from the Department of Revenue, which is barred from revealing the
names of tax-stamp purchasers to law enforcement agencies. After a drug
arrest, revenue agents check seized drugs for tax stamps. If there are none,
dealers are charged the taxes -- and a penalty.

According to an affidavit and search warrant signed by Green and filed
Friday in District Court:

Ward's problems began when police were tipped off Wednesday that a man named
"Crush" was selling drugs out of 410 Quartz Drive and was making heroin
deliveries in his Jeep. The informant provided the license number of the
Jeep and a description of Crush.

On Thursday, investigators Jerry Husketh and Green conducted surveillance on
the suspect. Then they got a tip that Crush would be making a delivery at
2:30 p.m. They watched as the man opened the rear hatch and then get inside
the Jeep and drive away.

They followed the Jeep , stopped it and found several bags of heroin stashed
in socks in the Jeep's rear cargo area and a 7-gram bag in his pocket. Then
they searched his home and found more heroin, cut and uncut.

On the streets, Green said, the 80 dosage bags go for $8 to $20 each . The
uncut heroin -- 51 grams, or nearly 2 ounces -- goes for $10,000 to $16,000,
but that can be worth four or six times more when cut . "If you took it in
the form we got it in, it would kill you," Green said.

Then, because there was such a large amount of drugs and valuable property
in the home, investigators picked up the phone and called the tax man.

An inventory of seized property filed by Agent W. Brian Zieverink shows that
he confiscated $1,046 in cash and 15 pieces of electronic equipment,
including a cassette deck, an Apple computer, an Epson computer scanner, an
Epson photo printer, a Samsung digital camera, a Sony video camera, a Korg
Trinity keyboard, an Aiwa tape player and other keyboards, mixers and
musical equipment.

"If he had the tax stamp on [ the heroin], it would have saved him more than
$14,000," Green said.

Ward was charged with three counts of trafficking in heroin, two counts of
possession of heroin with the intent to manufacture, sell or deliver,
maintaining a vehicle for the sale of drugs, maintaining a residence for the
sale of drugs and possessing drug paraphernalia.

State records show he does not have a driver's license here under that name.
He appeared in court Friday and was in the Durham County jail Friday night
on $175,000 bail.