NORTH CAROILINA DRUG ARRESTS STEM FROM FAILURE TO OBEY MOVE-OVER LAW

It’s being called one of the largest drug seizures in state history -- Iredell County Sheriff’s deputies confiscated 165 pounds of cocaine Monday.

There are several unique aspects to this story, including the amount of drugs, the manner in which they were being transported, and the reason deputies found the drugs. Iredell County Sheriff’s Deputies were working with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement along Interstate 77 Monday when a van failed to move over when it passed their vehicles.

When officers went to write the driver a ticket, what they found was something they had never seen before: A table packed with 165 pounds of cocaine is surprising even for narcotics agents.

“Holy moley!” exclaimed an undercover narcotics agent.

That’s because this one seizure, valued at $18 million, is worth more than all of the drugs confiscated by the department in all of last year.

“It’s pretty much a once in a lifetime hit,” the undercover agent said.

What makes it even more unique is how the drugs were transported – inside hydraulic compartments built into the roof of a Chevy conversion van.

“We see compartments quite often, this was one of the more elaborate compartments we’ve seen,” says Captain Jimmy Craven with the Iredell County Sheriff’s Department.

Investigators believe the driver, 31-year-old Tony Peguero, was transporting the drugs from Atlanta to Philadelphia. But they say the seizure could still affect the local drug market in North Carolina.

“The way the drugs are distributed throughout the United States it could come back here, just depends on the organization,” said the undercover agent.

The Sheriff’s Interstate Criminal Enforcement Unit, assisted by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement teams, were working along I-77 when they made the stop. According to deputies, that’s one of the reasons for the County’s drug traffic.

“You’ve got I-77 and I-40 passing through this county and those are two main highways for legal and illegal goods as well,” Craven said.

Peguero is behind bars charged with trafficking cocaine. He's being held under a $1 million secured bond.

As for the drugs, deputies say one use of cocaine is about two tenths of a gram.

Do the math, and this seizure amounts to more than 370,000 uses of cocaine that will never be used.