LABS BUSTED ON DRUG ENFORCEMENT DAY

As part of a statewide push for National Drug Enforcement Day, the
State Bureau of Investigation, working with local law enforcement
agencies, reported busting four methaqualone labs and seizing a
variety of drugs Thursday.

Rowan County sheriff's deputies and Salisbury police officers
participated in Thursday sweep and charged at least six people with
illegally selling or possessing everything from opium to various
prescription medicines.

In addition to the illegal meth labs, N.C. Attorney General Roy
Cooper's office reported seizure of a pound of cocaine, 18 pounds of
marijuana, 4,430 marijuana plants, 259 pills and more than $83,000 in cash.

Seventy people were arrested across the state, Cooper said in a press
release Friday.

The methaqualone labs were busted in Harnett, Buncombe and McDowell counties.

In Alleghany County, state agents executed a search warrant at a home
and seized more than 4,000 marijuana plants growing inside.

In Duplin County, state and local law enforcement officers arrested
23 street-level drug dealers and confiscated five weapons.

Cooper recently received funding for five new drug chemistry experts
to analyze evidence from drug crimes at the State Bureau of
Investigation Crime Lab and one new field agent to focus on
trafficking in methamphetamines and other drugs.