Carpenter appeared in a Clark County Municipal Court for an arraignment Thursday and pleaded not guilty. He is booked in the Clark County Jail on a $250,000 bond.
Heroin valued at more than $120,000 was allegedly seized in a Clark County Sheriff’s Office search from a Gerlaugh Road home Carpenter was renting. The investigation began after the deputy who patrols Bethel Twp. received a tip that drug deals were taking place in the parking lot of the Sunoco gas station at the corner of Gerlaugh Road and Lower Valley Pike, Sheriff Gene Kelly said.
“This started as the best of community policing and it’s that bond of trust and confidence that we will take this information and that we will act upon it,” he said.
The deputy and sheriff’s office detectives watched the parking lot and alleged they observed a hand-to-hand drug transaction, deputies said. After the drug deal, deputies stopped the two parties involved and searched their vehicles, where they reportedly found drugs and money.
Based on the drugs found in the traffic stop, the sheriff’s office requested a search warrant for the home just down the street from the Sunoco in the 10000 block of Gerlaugh Road. There investigators said they found 1.5 kilos of heroin, multiple loaded guns, cars, cash and other items. These items were seized by the sheriff’s office during their search.
The bulk amount of drugs and that “fingers” — or bundles of 7 or 8 grams of heroin that are sold at a street value of $1,200 — of heroin were found indicates that the suspect was selling drugs to other drug dealers for them to distribute, investigators said.
The investigation into this case will continue, Kelly said, and more arrests and charges could result when the case is brought to a Clark County grand jury.
This bust is the largest seizure of heroin made by a road deputy in sheriff’s office history, Kelly said. The RANGE Task Force assisted the sheriff’s office in the search.
The investigation, seizure of drugs and arrest will have a bigger effect on other crime in the area, Kelly said.
“(Heroin users) steal, they are in violent crimes, they commit robberies. This is the pebble in the pond that circulates all throughout the community,” he said.
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