DOT worker busted in drug sting

Smithfield, N.C. — A state Department of Transportation worker was charged Monday with drug trafficking after authorities said he sold methadone to an undercover officer.

Wesley Nelson Carey was charged with five counts of trafficking in methadone and one count each of maintaining a vehicle to keep a controlled substance and dispensing a prescription without a license.

Carey, a dump truck driver with the DOT, was arrested at a road construction site near Selma. He was being held on a $260,000 bond.

DOT spokesman Steve Abbott said the agency was cooperating with law enforcement authorities on the case.

The arrest followed a two-month undercover investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation and the Johnston County Sheriff's Office. Authorities said they purchased 50 methadone pills and found more pills in the cab of a DOT truck.

Methadone is a painkiller that also is used to help heroin addicts break their drug addictions.