Raid in Andrews nets guns, drugs

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  • Police seized guns, drugs, cash during an early morning raid in Andrews last week.
    Police seized guns, drugs, cash during an early morning raid in Andrews last week.
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    Andrews – A six-month investigation resulted in an early morning raid last week, with law enforcement arresting five people inside a suspected drug house.
    The target of the investigation, 49-year-old Phillip Chambers, is accused of selling heroin out of his Caribou Lane home. He and four other people were at the property when police swarmed it around 5 a.m. Oct. 22.
    During the raid, law enforcement found 17.4 grams of heroin, 34.4 grams of marijuana, .2 grams of meth, three semi-automatic pistols, four long guns and more than $3,000 in cash. Police also found a 2018 Kawasaki sport bike that was previously reported stolen out of Jackson County.
    “The amount of heroin we seized may not seem like a lot, but a normal dosage unit is 1/10th of one gram,” Cherokee County Sheriff Derrick Palmer said. “So 17 grams of heroin is mid-level trafficking.”
    Chambers is charged with multiple drug offenses, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a stolen vehicle.
    Andrews residents Ralph Edward Dailey Jr., 41, and Patsy Morgan Deetz, 59 – along with Dennis Solles, 62, and 48-year-old Tracy Teesateskie Hemphill, both of Robbinsville – were also arrested during the raid. Dailey, Solles and Hemphill are charged with heroin possession. Deetz is charged with failure to appear in court related to a previous felony charge.
    Additional charges may be filed as the investigation unfolds.
    “This investigation is far from closed and will more than likely spread to other targets not only here in Cherokee County, but in western North Carolina and north Georgia as well,” Palmer said. “We are also appreciative of our community, which continues to provide us with valuable information that leads to these kinds of arrests.”
    Neighboring counties were also glad to hear about the raid.
    “We had been working with Cherokee County some, sharing information back and forth,” Graham County Sheriff Joseph
Jones said. “Some of the information we had gotten through the sharing was that some of our local people were going over there, buying the drugs, then coming back over here and selling them.
    “A lot of it will hinge
on what the court system does with him (Chambers). If he gets out, he’ll start right back up. He was a major player in a lot of the dope that was coming into the county.”
    The raid was conducted by members of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, as well as the sheriff offices in Jackson and Macon counties.
    To report crimes and suspicious activity locally, call 837-1344 or email crime.tips@cherokeecounty-nc.gov.
    Kevin Hensley, editor of The Graham Star, contributed to this report.