DRUG RAID MONEY BRINGS WINDFALL

JACKSONVILLE -- When Jacksonville police officers and Onslow County
investigators searched a home in Maysville on Sunday morning, they expected
to find drugs and probably a gun or two.

What they didn't anticipate was a financial windfall.

But when law enforcement officers from two counties stopped counting the
$10, $20 and $50 dollar bills Sunday night, it added up to more than
$850,000 with a good chunk scheduled to come back to the county sheriff's
department and city police.

How the money taken during a Sunday morning drug raid in Onslow and Craven
counties will be divided had not been determined Monday. The Asset
Forfeiture Program is generally administered through the U.S. Attorney's
Office, which had no comment on the case Monday afternoon.

Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said the program usually kicks back funds to
help local police agencies in drug cases. Brown said that during his 12
years in office, most of his department's "war on drugs" has been paid for
through the program.

"I think it's a great program," Brown said. "Funds obtained by the illegal
sell of drugs should be utilized to stop other illegal drug crimes."

A spokesman for the Craven County Sheriff's Department said Sunday that the
three law enforcement agencies would split 75 percent of the $854,000 three
ways. But, Jacksonville Deputy Police Chief Sammy Phillips said, the final
call would be made by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Phillips said while it could take years before a decision is made, police,
like the sheriff's department, funnels the money back into drug
investigations. Historically, Phillips said some of the money is used to
pay informants as police build large drug cases.

Brown said he was unsure of how soon his department would receive the
money, but added that Onslow County gets paid enough through the program to
keep its investigations alive.

"Right now, we get funds coming in periodically often on cases that have
been made six or seven months ago," Brown said.

Narcotics investigators for the city and county came across the money while
serving a search warrant at an Onslow County home just outside Maysville on
Mattocks Road at 1:30 a.m. Sunday. They found 12 grams of cocaine and a
safe containing $225,225.

A cache of weapons, including an SKS assault rifle, a .30 caliber Carbine
rifle, a Remington shotgun, a Phoenix Arms .25 caliber semiautomatic pistol
and a Magnum Research 7.62mm assault rifle, were also seized.

While at the scene, investigators were able to find information that led
them to a storage facility in New Bern where another safe was uncovered.
This one contained $621,990 in cash.

"You don't ever know what you're going to get when you go to a raid or a
bust," Brown said.