Arrest, drugs, cash seized in Urbana raid

One arrest was made and thousands of dollars in cash and drugs were taken from a home Thursday in a raid that is part of an ongoing drug investigation.

James Douglas Breneman, 34, was taken to the Tri-County Regional Jail after the morning raid of Apartment A at 452 E. Church St. by Urbana and Bellefontaine police.

“JD,” as Breneman is also called, was supposed to be in the home because he has been on house arrest in connection with another drug case from February, Urbana Chief Matt Lingrell said in a prepared statement.

Breneman’s court bond from that previous arrest was revoked by a court Thursday afternoon and he is scheduled for a new bond hearing on Monday. That old bond required him to be on house arrest.

The evidence from the raid will be presented to a Champaign County grand jury for further dispensation of the case, Lingrell said.

The raid at 10:04 a.m. was sanctioned by a court-ordered search warrant, during which thousands of dollars in cash, several bags of marijuana and several pieces of crack cocaine and heroin were seized.

Police, who had obtained a court order for the search, also recovered “numerous evidentiary items connecting the residents and some visitors to the home at the time of the raid, to drug crimes,” Lingrell said

“Officers recovered numerous evidentiary items connecting the residents to felony drug crimes,” according to the police division, which also noted that “some of the drug crimes had been committed in the vicinity of a school. “

“Police are appreciative of the community’s support as they work to deal with the dangerous issue and long reaching issues that go along with drug trafficking,” Lingrell said.

This is the third raid in 2013 the police division has said is part of an ongoing drug investigation.

*On April 10, a fight outside an apartment building in the 300 block of South Main Street led police to a connection with a drug investigation and the discovery of a "sizable meth lab" hours later.

During the investigation into the fight, police discovered a connection with an ongoing drug investigation at 1046 N. Russell St. on the city’s northwest side. Police found several items in the home that indicated the possible production of methamphetamine since about the time the original investigation in early February.

*On April 4, four men and a woman were arrested on felony and misdemeanor drug charges following a raid on a house at 329 E. Court Street.

The five people, who range in age from 19 to 28, were arrested when several police and investigators found heroin, marijuana and crack cocaine, Lingrell said.

*On Jan. 9, four people ranging in age from 21 to 31 were arrested on drug trafficking warrants, again the result of undercover police investigations done over several weeks. Those arrests were for residents of Dellinger Road, Gwynne Street and Boyce Street.

Lingrell has said that police feel that many theft and burglary-related crimes in and around Urbana often have a direct connection to drug abuse crimes, as users seek quick money to trade or sell to drug traffickers.

The police division asks that anyone who has information regarding drug trafficking or abuse to call 652-4350 or the division’s drug tip hotline at 652-4357. Callers can and will remain anonymous.

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