Two men are in jail following a bust netting more than half a kilogram of cocaine.
Wednesday, the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office — working with state Alcohol Law Enforcement, the State Bureau of Investigation, the Duplin County Sheriff’s Office and the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office — arrested the two men following a cocaine trafficking investigation.
“We are actively working to affect these large quantity drug shipments that are coming into our area,” Lenoir County Sheriff Chris Hill said in a statement. “Our narcotics detectives are dedicating numerous hours to find and arrest these persons who are facilitating drug trafficking in Lenoir County.
“We are proud to continue to build relationships with outside agencies like the ones who have helped in this arrest because drug suppliers do not stop at county lines.”
Jose de Jesus Colunga-Flores, 24, and Manuel Aguilar Servantes, 39, were arrested in a car on Burncoat Road, which runs between N.C. 55 and Liddell Road. Authorities found 22 ounces of powder cocaine at the scene — equal to about 623.7 grams — at the scene. It has a street value of about $43,120.
Servantes, of Goldsboro, is charged with two counts of trafficking cocaine, one count of conspiracy to traffic cocaine and one count of maintaining a vehicle for a controlled substance. He received an $800,000 bond and detained at the Lenoir County Jail.
Colunga-Flores, of La Grange, received a $250,000 bond for one count of conspiracy to traffic cocaine and was placed in the Lenoir County Jail.
Neither Colunga-Flores nor Servantes have a prison history in North Carolina, according to records from the state Department of Public Safety.
The two men are scheduled to appear May 2 in Lenoir County District Court.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.
