Benjamin Highsmith, 29, of Rome, Ga. and Sherrie Marie Brooks, 26, also from Rome
Murphy – Law enforcement raided a hotel Friday morning and found a suspected drug dealer flushing cash and drugs down the toilet.
Benjamin Highsmith, 29, of Rome, Ga., is accused of selling drugs from out of a hotel room on U.S. 64 West. Highsmith and Sherrie Marie Brooks, 26, also from Rome, were in the room with two pit bull K-9s when police smashed through a window around 2:30 a.m.
“We’ve been looking for this guy since the summer,” Cherokee County Sheriff Derrick Palmer said.
A trusted informant said Highsmith was back in town, so deputies conducted a stakeout. During the surveillance, deputies stopped vehicles containing people who visited the hotel room. During those traffic stops, police found grey powder heroin, black tar heroin, methamphetamine and assorted prescription pills, giving them enough probable cause to obtain a search warrant for the room.
“Dealers of this caliber don’t sell to the average Joe walking in off the street,” Palmer said. “They sell large quantities and only to certain people. So we watched vehicles coming and going, and stopped those cars.”
After obtaining a warrant, police tried to breach the hotel room’s solid steel door, to no avail. That momentary delay allowed Highsmith to run into the bathroom, according to the sheriff’s office, who say a deputy then smashed through a window to gain access to the room.
When the chaos settled, police seized about 140 grams of black tar heroin, a small amount of prescription pills, a semi-automatic handgun and $845 in cash.
“We think he flushed grey powder heroin because our informant said he had both black tar and grey heroin in the room,” Palmer said. “Typically, grey heroin has fentanyl in it, but we don’t know that until we have it analyzed.”
Highsmith and Brooks were each charged with several drug offenses, including heroin trafficking. Highsmith was also charged with possession of a firearm by a felon. The Valley River Humane Society in Marble took custody of their pit bulls until the suspects designate someone to pick up the dogs.
Meanwhile, Murphy residents Heather Ramsey, 40, and Jessie Crist, 38, were each charged with drug offenses related to the 7 grams of heroin police found in a car they occupied after leaving the hotel room.
Louis Tarantino Jr., 38, also of Murphy, was charged with possession of prescription pills and drug paraphernalia after police found contraband in the car he occupied after leaving the hotel as well.
Police say drugs seized during the raid and traffic stops have a total estimated street value of $60,000. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office led the stakeout and raid, with assistance from Cherokee tribal and Murphy police officers.