$1,000,000 Drug Bust In Pender

WWAY TV 3 The Sheriff's Office is calling it the biggest drug bust in Pender County history. Three men are behind bars tonight accused of trying to sell five kilos of pure cocaine. Sheriff Carson Smith says the street value of the cocaine is $500,000, but he says by the time local dealers got a hold of it and added filler and cooked some into crack it would have been worth well over a million bucks. After tracking three suspects for half-a-year- Pender County and ATF narcotics agents made their move Wednesday afternoon. Sheriff Smith says they made two traffic stops in the western part of Pender County where they knew drug deals were about to take place. Agents seized five kilograms of cocaine, a hand gun, two cars and made three arrests. The three arrested were of Hispanic origin. Two of them we know to be illegal. The third we are not sure about. One of them had gang markings -- tattoos from the Latin Kings Gang. The three suspects were living in Duplin County. Marcos Guzman is 23-years-old, Jorge Perez is 20 years old and Onan Escotto is 20 years old. Sheriff Smith says others may be involved and expects more arrests could be made. Agents tell us they're confident the cocaine made its way to southeastern North Carolina from the Mexican border. All three men are facing identical charges: * Three counts of trafficking cocaine * Felony possession of cocaine * Possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver cocaine * Manufacturing cocaine The suspects are in the Pender County jail under $4,000,000 bond each. So now when someone tells you that illegals are hard-working and honest people hear just to find work and make a living and support their family the American way, you can point them to this story.