Traffic Stop Nets Over $2M in Cocaine

Sgt. Mike Cox and Cpl. Jerry Maxwell stopped a car for speeding on N.C. Highway 55 in Mount Olive around 10:15 p.m. When the two men inside the car acted nervously, the officers became suspicious and asked to search the car. The men gave consent.

Under the back seat, the officers found a non-factory compartment, with an electric motor to control its door. Officers discovered 14 kilos, or approximately 30 pounds, of cocaine inside the compartment.

Those drugs have an estimated street value of more than $2 million, officials said.

"You never know what you are going to get from a speeding motorist," Winders said. "This is the single largest seizure of cocaine in the history of the Wayne County Sheriff's Office."

Officers arrested Eduardo A. Alamanza, 25, and Sergio A. Reyna, 20, both of 281 Nobles Loop Road, Trenton. They were each charged with two counts of trafficking in cocaine and placed in the Wayne County Detention Facility on separate $1 million bonds.

Winders praised the efforts of Cox and Maxwell, who belong to the Sheriff's Office's Aggressive Criminal Enforcement Team, formed in 1996.

"These two officers have received numerous hours of highway interdiction training and are simply good at what they do," Winders said. "The Aggressive Criminal Enforcement Team ... has enhanced our drug-fighting capability on the highways."