A Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office investigation into heroin coming into the county led to trafficking charges for a local man last Friday.

According to a BCSO press release, investigators charged Kiante Izquierdo, 22, of 100 Pheasant Drive in Washington with trafficking in heroin, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia after conducting a traffic stop on his vehicle as he was returning to Washington from New Jersey.

“He was originally from New Jersey, but lives here,” BCSO Drug Unit Lt. Russell Davenport said.

A search warrant executed on Izquierdo’s vehicle during the stop yielded six bricks of heroin, two bags of marijuana, a Glock 9mm pistol, a digital scale and packaging material. Izquierdo was held in the Beaufort County Detention Center on a $50,000 secured bond.

Davenport said each brick of heroin contained 50 smaller bags, each of which carry a street value of $10 to $20, placing the total value of the drugs between $3,000 and $6,000. The exact weight of the drugs is yet undetermined.

“Because of the dangers of fentanyl and all, we didn’t want to empty it all out and weigh it, so we’ll let the lab take care of it,” Davenport said.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, can be lethal in small doses and is sometimes cut with heroin to increase the drug’s potency. All told, Davenport says heroin use goes hand-in-hand with opioid abuse in other forms, including prescription pills.

“We’re not any exception to any other place,” he said. “We all have the same problems. I feel like we work it aggressively, especially where we’re seeing the overdoses and people getting killed when they’re using heroin. It’s kind of a priority for us. If we can work an investigation and stop people from dying on the street, that’s what we’re going to do.”