DeA failure to maintain insurance on a vehicle led to the arrest of two men last week. A routine traffic stop by Deputy Zach Martin with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office started with a check of the license plate number through the North Carolina DMV database. According to a press release from the sheriff’s office, the discovery of no insurance led to second check with DMV regarding the owner of the vehicle and another discovery that the owner’s license was suspended.
The press release said Martin pulled over the vehicle and noted a few things: the smell of marijuana and alcohol coming from inside the vehicle and a passenger who appeared to be intoxicated.
Additional deputies arrived at the scene, the passenger’s name also run through the system and deputies learned the man was wanted for a child support order for arrest, according to the press release. As Charles Eugene Gorham III, 28, of Minuteman Lane, Washington, was being arrested, deputies also found an open container of vodka in his pocket, the statement said.
Meanwhile, deputies had searched the vehicle and found a plastic container with 10 individually wrapped packages of marijuana hidden under the car’s console, said the release. Martin also arrested the driver, Jerome Coley Suggs Jr., 25, of East Seventh Street, Washington.
Both men were charged with possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. Gorham was served with the child support OFA and charged with possession of an open container. Suggs was also charged driving while license revoked. Both men were held at the Beaufort County jail under $5,000 secured bonds.