Staff report
A 77-year-old Mocksville man with a long criminal record was arrested Wednesday as he tried to sell illegal prescription drugs at Salisbury Mall, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office reported.
Raymond Charles Creason is charged with trafficking in opium by possession, trafficking in opium by transportation, maintaining a vehicle to keep and store a controlled substance, possession with intent to sell and deliver a controlled substance, all felonies, and a misdemeanor count of carrying a concealed weapon.
He remained in the Rowan County jail Wednesday night under $25,000 bond.
Detectives with the Special Investigations Unit started watching Creason after getting a tip that he was going to sell a large quantity of hydrocodone to another person at Salisbury Mall, the Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
They were watching Creason Wednesday when he drove from Mocksville to Salisbury, and officers stopped his car when he pulled into the parking lot at the mall on Statesville Boulevard.
Inside the car, the detectives found a pill bottle with the label removed that contained 120 hydrocodone pills and a knife under Creason’s seat, according to the press release.
Creason “was very familiar to investigators based on his past criminal drug activity,” the press release said.
Creason is currently on parole after being convicted in 1992 as a habitual felon, according to the N.C. Department of Correction website. His maximum prison term was set at 40 years, but he was released in 2006.
He has a lengthy criminal record going back to 1971 that includes mostly felony convictions. Other crimes for which Creason has served time include multiple drug offenses, forgery and crime against nature, all felonies, as well as misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor and driving while impaired.
During his most recent prison term, Creason was cited for seven infractions that included threatening staff and weapons possession.