BOLIVIA—Agents with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office drug enforcement unit seized 8,000 bindles of heroin in an early morning traffic stop on Thursday.
Agents arrested Kevin Jermaine Hankins, 32, of Candlewood Court in Supply, after a traffic stop at about 2 a.m. Thursday on U.S. 17 in Leland. As officers approached Hankins’ vehicle, he fled, leading police on a brief chase before deputies forced him off the road using a PIT maneuver, Sheriff John Ingram said.
Hankins has been charged with trafficking opium or heroin, possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver heroin, felony flee to elude arrest, reckless driving to endanger, speeding and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Hankins was taken to the Brunswick County Detention Center, where he was placed under a $760,000 secured bond.
Ingram said it’s the county’s largest heroin seizure in history. The street value of the seized heroin is $160,000.
To put it in perspective, Ingram said, in 2013, drug agents seized a little more than 8,000 bindles of heroin, which was more than double 2012’s seizure of 3,400 bindles.
Heroin trafficking and use in Brunswick County is on the rise, as evidenced by the rapid increase. In 2011, drug agents seized 354 bindles. Forty-two bindles were seized in 2010 and 17 bindles were seized in 2009.
The investigation is ongoing and more arrests are expected.
Check back for more on this developing story.
