SEARCHES FIND SUSPICIOUS SUBSTANCES IN PROBE

FBI agents executing a search warrant seized a duffle bag and a small bag
containing a total of 29 wrapped white balls of an unknown substance from a
Thomasville outbuilding described in an affidavit as a "stash house" for
indicted narcotics officer Scott Woodall of the Davidson County Sheriff's
Office.

According to a federal inventory, they also confiscated numerous pills,
syringes and liquid vials, all contained in a blue nylon bag, as well as
scales, cutting boards, knives, a torch, plastic baggies, an open box of
rubber gloves, and an iron skillet and a small silver bucket, both
containing possible residue.

In a separate search at the county vice and narcotics unit, agents found a
"plastic box containing green leafy substance and scale" inside a
gold-colored Chevrolet Caprice sedan belonging to the sheriff's office.

They discovered rolling papers, straws, a stun gun and packages of
photographs of drug usage and of homicides/suicides in the center console
of a white GMC van belonging to the sheriff's office.

They found a .40-caliber Glock 23, a light, semi-automatic handgun with a
13-round magazine for bullets, but little else, in a brown Chevrolet Tahoe
four-door sport utility vehicle whose owner is unknown.

And they returned unexecuted a search warrant for a tan-colored Tahoe
reportedly assigned to indicted narcotics officer Douglas Edward
Westmoreland. The inventory did not specify why no search was made or
whether the vehicle could be found.

These are results of the first searches stemming from last week's arrest of
three Davidson County narcotics officers, an Archdale police officer and
two Lexington residents on charges of conspiring to distribute large
quantities of cocaine and marijuana as well as steroids and Ecstasy.

A federal grand jury issued a sealed indictment Dec. 7 against 1st Lt.
Woodall, Lt. Westmoreland and Sgt. William Monroe Rankin of the sheriff's
office, Sgt. Christopher James Shetley of the Archdale police, and
Lexington area residents Wyatt Nathan Kepley and Marco Aurelio Acosta Soza.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Klauer in Greensboro and Special Agent Joanne
Morley of the FBI in Charlotte said they could not comment on the nature of
the substances seized in the searches.

The affidavit used to obtain the search warrants from a federal magistrate
alleged that federal and state agents four times observed Woodall selling
cocaine to a former police officer charged in a separate case with
distributing Ecstasy.

The affidavit also alleged that Woodall sold marijuana - sometimes out of
Tupperware boxes kept in the white GMC van - as well as steroids and Ecstasy.

The affidavit alleged that he used scales in the "stash house" to weigh and
package cocaine and marijuana and a vacuum-pack machine to package
marijuana for distribution.

The document said he also kept his Harley-Davidson Iron Horse motorcycle there.

The small, pre-fabricated storage building described as the "stash house"
stands beside a small white-siding house at 1014 Virginia St., a dead-end
street of similar 1940-ish homes just beyond the southern limits of
Thomasville.

Monday afternoon, an upholstered chair sat empty on the front porch of the
house and a rusty brown pickup sat parked in the front yard. In addition to
the "No Trespassing" signs on the both the outbuilding and the house, a
note attached to the home's front door said, "Don't knock or ring doorbell
unless you are with the fire or police department and then something better
be burning or dead!"

No one was home.

Mildred Turner, who has lived next-door for 24 years, said two cars of
federal agents swooped in one morning last week - she thinks it was
Wednesday, the day agents with the FBI and the State Bureau of
Investigation arrested the sheriff's deputies and the police officer - and
removed contents from the outbuilding for a little more than an hour.

Her husband, Wayne, who works for a cushion fabrication and supply business
in High Point, said a pair of sheriff's office patrol cars together parked
along the street for about an hour Sunday, and a black, dark-windowed,
unmarked law enforcement car, like those used by the sheriff's office,
drove through Monday evening while a reporter was there.

"There's been a lot of law enforcement down through here in the past week,"
Mildred Turner said.

County tax records indicate Woodall does not own the property. Mrs. Turner
said another man, whom she described as a good neighbor, rented the house
and appeared to let others use the outbuilding for storage. The man who
primarily used the outbuilding was not as friendly as the renter of the
house, she said.

A federal magistrate has issued five other search warrants that
investigators have not yet returned. They are for the sheriff's office
vice-narcotics unit, the Thomasville homes of Westmoreland and Shetley, and
two other cars belonging to the sheriff's office.