By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Months of investigating led authorities to arrest five people Wednesday in a prescription drug roundup throughout the county.
The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office special investigations unit conducted an ongoing undercover operation involving people selling prescription medications.
“This was an effort to target the ongoing prescription medication abuse and the individuals that make them so readily available,” a statment said.
The operation involved undercover detectives who made purchases of various medications from individuals, including forms of hydrocodone and oxycontin, obtained legally and others illegally.
Sheriff’s Capt. John Sifford said some of the medications were from legitimate prescriptions, the pills of which were then sold to others.
Deputies made arrests Wednesday in homes around Rowan County. One of the subjects was already incarcerated in the N.C. Department of Correction and is scheduled to be charged on a later date.
Deputies arrested the following:
• Kimberly Joy Shelton, 35, of 1040 Flash Bullet Drive, Rockwell, with felony possession with intent to sell and deliver a schedule II controlled substance (oxycodone), felony sell and deliver a schedule II controlled substance, misdemeanor maintaining a vehicle to keep store and sell a controlled substance. Shelton has since been released from the Rowan County Detention Center on $3,000 secured bond.
• Teresa Farrington Black, 49, of 517 E. Henderson St., Salisbury, with with felony possession with intent to sell and deliver a schedule II controlled substance (oxycodone), felony sell and deliver a schedule II controlled substance and misdemeanor maintaining a vehicle to keep store and sell a controlled substance.
Black remains in the Rowan County Detention Center on $10,000 secured bond.
• Jerry Gray Nichols Sr., 47, 680 St. Stephens Church Road, Gold Hill, with two counts felony trafficking in opium/heroin, felony possession with intent to sell and deliver a schedule III substance and felony conspiracy to traffic in opium/heroin.
Nichols remains in the Rowan County jail under a $25,000 secured bond.
• Carla Long Lowe, 43, also of 680 St. Stephens Church Road, Gold Hill, with felony possession with intent to sell and deliver a schedule VI controlled substance, felony sell and deliver a schedule VI controlled substance and misdemeanor maintaining a vehicle to keep store and sell a controlled substance.
Lowe has since been released on a $5,000 secured bond.
• Tracy Gene Holleman, 36, of Mocksville is currently in the custody of the North Carolina Department of Corrections and will face charges related to his selling of prescription medications to a Rowan County undercover officer.
The Sheriff’s Office is searching for Kimberly Arlene Hill, a 30-year-oldwhite female. Anyone with information are asked to contact Lt. Chad Moose at 704-216-8687 or Crime Stoppers 866-639-5245.
Contact reporter Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253.