EX UNION DEPUTY SENTENCED FOR SELLING DRUGS

Waxhaw A federal judge sentenced a former Union County sheriff's
deputy Monday to 18 months in prison for selling drugs.

Louis Balducci, 36, of Waxhaw pleaded guilty in April to unlawful
possession of silencers and two counts of selling the prescription
painkiller Oxycodone. The government accused him of selling a total of
240 pills four separate times to FBI sources over a month beginning in
mid-January and carrying a silencer-equipped handgun during the
transactions. Balducci was a deputy from July 2006 to January 2008 but
was on medical leave after he was injured in a car wreck in spring
2007.