Warrior police make bust, cite stores

Published 3:28 pm Wednesday, November 7, 2007

By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



The Warrior Police Department worked recently with two other departments to make a substantial drug bust and to cite stores selling for alcohol to minors.

According to Det. Corey Archer, on Oct. 28, an anonymous caller reported a drunken driver on Interstate 65 north.

An officer pulled over the vehicle, a 2007 Cadillac Escalade, and ran the drivers information. The driver, a black male from the Huntsville area, was reportedly not drunk, but the officer asked to search the vehicle.

The driver refused and a K-9 unit from Gardendale was dispatched to search the vehicle.

Archer said the dog indicated drugs in the vehicle, which turned out to be about 12,000 hydrocodone tablets. Archer said the street value of the drugs would be at least $7 per pill.

The driver was arrested, charged with a possession of a controlled substance and was later freed on $15,000 bond. Archer said the driver could not be charged with trafficking, because there is no state statute that addresses trafficking hydrocodone.

Archer said he could also not reveal the driver’s name because the case has been turned over the Drug Enforcement Agency for further investigation.

Archer said the bust was the biggest interstate bust in several months.

“We hit seven pounds of marijuana about six or seven months ago,” he said. “We don’t normally work interstate interdiction, but we got lucky.”

On Thursday, Archer said the department teamed up with the Morris Police Department to crack down on convenience stores selling alcohol to minors.

A minor was used to work in cooperation with the departments. He said the minor went to six stores in the Morris and Warrior areas to attempt to purchase alcohol.

Archer said of the six stores, two sold alcohol without asking to see identification.

“He [the minor] didn’t know anybody at the stores,” he said. “He just went in and tried to buy alcohol and they sold it to him without going through the proper identification process. They didn’t ID him at all.”

Those stores, the Chevron on U.S. 31 in Warrior and the Fuel-Z on Cane Creek Road, were cited for the alcohol sales.

Archer said the clerk at each store was issued a citation and will have to appear in court. He said no stores were singled out and the investigation stemmed from complaints from residents concerned about alcohol sales to minors.

“If we really wanted to get picky, we could notify the ABC board and they could pull their licenses,” he said. “We just want them to quit selling to minors.”