Series: Part 4 Of 4

DRUG DEALER HINSON FEARED, AUTHORITIES SAY

On June 24, 1985, three Pitt County sheriff's deputies responded to a
domestic call at Leo Hinson's home near Farmville. They found a raging
Hinson outside, destroying his own property, Patrol Chief Rick Fisher said.
Hinson grabbed a deputy by the tie, then started smashing a board against
the windshield of a patrol car.

Then, Fisher said, Hinson jumped into a two-ton grain truck and started
yelling, "I'm going to kill all you son-of-a-bitches."

Fisher said Hinson rammed two patrol cars into ditches. Deputies responded
with gunfire, Fisher said, hitting Hinson in the shoulder and twice in the
legs.

When Hinson was finally subdued and loaded into an ambulance, Fisher
climbed into the back to ride with him. He said Hinson rolled his head
back, looked straight at him and asked if he was one of the deputies who
had shot him.

Yes, Fisher replied.

"He said when he got out of prison he was going to come back and kill me,"
Fisher said. "He's an intimidating man. I watched my back for a long time."

Hinson was charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill,
assault on a policeman, two counts of damage to property and one count of
possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

He was convicted in November 1985 and served five years of a 30-year
sentence. Three months after his parole, records show, he was charged with
possessing drugs and received probation.

Fisher said he didn't know about Hinson's most recent arrest in Virginia,
but it didn't surprise him.

Hinson had been convicted in 1984 of possessing drugs in Duplin County. He
had been out of prison only two months before he tried to run over the
deputies with the grain truck, records show.

Fisher said deputies suspected that Hinson was selling drugs the day they
shot him.

"He was very resourceful, and he had money at his disposal," Fisher said.

Investigators say that Hinson stayed in the drug business, becoming the
leader of one of the major drug organizations in the Southeast. And Phillip
Barfield of Newton Grove was one of his chief lieutenants. Now both are in
custody -- Hinson on charges of plotting to kill witnesses against him and
Barfield awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to federal drug charges.

A Stint In Virginia

In 1994, Hinson left North Carolina for South Boston, Va., where he began
to buy large chunks of farmland.

He also began to take an active role in a move to bring corporate hog farms
to Halifax County, a proposal that divided the Virginia county just north
of the North Carolina border.

In 1999, Hinson submitted a request for a land-use permit to build 12 hog
houses on his farm. He was backed by Carroll's Foods of Duplin County,
where Hinson once lived.

Instead of granting the permit, the Halifax County Board of Supervisors
approved more stringent setbacks for hog farms.

Hinson fought back with a lawsuit, alleging that Jack Dunavant, head of a
group opposed to corporate hog farming, gave the board Hinson's criminal
record in an effort to sway its vote.

Hinson sued Dunavant for $27 million, saying his actions kept him from
building the hog houses and resulted in lost income.

Dunavant countersued and won an undisclosed amount, but he said he never
felt safe until Hinson was arrested this month. Until then, Dunavant said,
he slept with a double-barrel shotgun at his bedside.

"I knew the kind of characters that they were, Barfield and Hinson both,"
Dunavant said. "They would take out anybody who would stand in their way."

Maj. Richard Pulliam of the Halifax County Sheriff's Office said Hinson's
trademark is fear and intimidation.

"Leo is a feared man," Pulliam said. "Fear is a necessity. You need that to
control your associates, to keep your competitors at bay.

"His competitors fear him, the citizens of our community fear him."

But Hinson had never received more than a traffic citation in South Boston
until his arrest this month.

Today, he is being held in federal custody in Roanoke, Va., without bail.
The federal government has frozen his assets, including about $3 million
worth of property in Virginia and an estimated $1 million worth of farm
equipment and vehicles.

Investigators say Hinson and his wife own 1,400 acres in Halifax County alone.

The government has also frozen property valued at $300,000 in Brunswick
County in North Carolina and a home in Georgetown, S.C., valued at
$265,000. Hinson also owns property in Louisiana, investigators say.

And that's just what has been identified. "This organization has a lot more
assets," one investigator said.

As Pulliam drove onto Hinson's property in South Boston, he pointed out its
vastness -- and its emptiness.

Few cows grazed on the 640-acre spread. Barely used farm equipment sat at
work stations. For all the land Hinson said he farmed, Pulliam said,
investigators could locate only three farm hands.

Investigators have evidence showing that Hinson had been selling drugs
since the 1970s, Pulliam said.

They say more than $1 million worth of those drugs filtered into Sampson,
Johnston and Brunswick counties through Barfield.

Four years after the investigation began, Barfield sits in the Johnston
County Jail in Smithfield, awaiting sentencing. He was not available for an
interview.

His lawyer did not return repeated telephone calls.

Investigators say Barfield is cooperating somewhat with them, trying to
minimize the punishment he is about to face.

Unanswered Questions

Those investigators won't say where the investigation will turn from here.
Some questions about the case remain unanswered.

The investigators have said that public officials and law enforcement
officers may be implicated in the drug probe. But not one has been charged.

And no one has been charged with killing Jamie Hewett. Hewett, Barfield's
biggest drug customer, was shot to death in 1998, shortly after he was
arrested on drug charges.

Investigators suspect Hewett was shot to keep him quiet, but the trail from
him still led them to Barfield and Hinson, they said.

Investigators have not said who Hinson was hiring to kill the witnesses in
the case, nor have they disclosed much about how the drug operation worked.

Lawmen say they will keep digging for answers. After four years and the
arrests of Barfield and Hinson, they say, the investigation is not over.
"It could be termed a new beginning," Pulliam said.