Authorities wary of mysterious drug dealer 'Black Horse'

    Andrews – Who is Black Horse?
    “Black Horse works for the mafia, and he’s running drugs from Lumberton up here into the mountains of Cherokee County,” Andrews Police Chief Michael Hobgood said. “No one knows his real name. The FBI may be doing an investigation I don’t know about.”
    Andrews’ new police chief dropped this bombshell Thursday at the Coalition for a Safe and Drug-free Cherokee County meeting that focused on ways to combat drug use. He recently received that tip from an informant he cultivated while working in Moore County.
    “No one has been able to catch him,” Hobgood said about Black Horse. “Hopefully, I can get some leads on who is dealing drugs in this area, but it’s a collaborative effort that’s going to take help from [every law enforcement agency] and the community to combat this issue.”
    The role a community plays in combating drugs is a message local leaders have stressed over the last six months. Law enforcement officials ask residents to protect themselves by starting a community watch network to deter crime and provide police with a steady flow of information regarding suspicions in their neighborhood. When the community deters burglaries and other property crimes through proactive measures, police are free to conduct long-term investigations targeting drug dealers such as Black Horse.
    “A high call volume can restrict a small department like this,” Hobgood said.
    In addition to a large number of calls regarding property crimes, local police are sometimes dispatched to investigate alleged crimes that turn out to be bogus reports – further hindering the department’s effectiveness – as was the case on Aug. 20, when police received a call about an alleged fatal drug overdose.
    “We had to go to that call,” Hobgood said.
    Police received the bogus death report a little before 6 p.m. A resident told 911 they received a text message showing a picture of a man whose ears, lips and face were purple and black, as if he had died. Without the picture and location of his body, police searched the man’s last known whereabouts, Designing Divas Beauty Salon on Main Street.
    “We got there, and it was nothing,” the chief said.
    “The guy who was supposedly deceased later called dispatch and wanted to talk to our officer. We rush over there with all of our manpower, and for it to be nothing, it strains the department, especially one that’s short-staffed.”
    Hobgood said he plans to have the department fully staffed with six certified police officers within the next month. He hopes to have additional police cars before the end of the year so officers can cover more ground by traveling in separate vehicles.
    “We’re getting killed with burglaries and larcenies,” he said. “They’re breaking into these businesses mainly because they know we don’t have many police out
patrolling.”
    To directly tackle drugs in the community, Hobgood plans to work with surrounding law enforcement agencies to conduct undercover operations.
    “The drug problem is going to continue if we don’t cut off the flow,” he said, adding that long-term investigations can provide prosecutors with enough evidence to incarcerate drug dealers for longer periods of time.
    “We all have to try daily to shut down the drug problem. My brother overdosed on heroin about three years ago at the age of 46. I have zero tolerance for drugs. Our goal is to clean up Andrews. It’s an everyday battle. Give us a chance.”
    To start a community watch program in your neighborhood, contact the Andrews Police Department or Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office for details and resources.