Cash and crack cocaine seized at checkpoint

The discovery of a “white ivory-rock substance” beneath a car stopped at a recent license checkpoint in Kinston led to the arrest of a man and a woman for crack cocaine possession.

Kinston police arrested the driver, Leslie “Les” Nathaniel Bandy, 28, and passenger, Tamaro Shanta Harper, 36, each for a felony charge of possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine and maintaining a vehicle for a controlled substance.

Police officers with the Kinston Department of Public Safety first became suspicious of the two when the car they were riding in — a 1998 Infinity 4P — approached a license checkpoint set up at the 1200 block of North Queen Street; the car smelled of marijuana, an incident report from the Jan. 20 arrest states.

After noticing an “ivory-rock substance” on the ground outside the passenger-side door, officers found several more pieces on the passenger seat, said Woody Spencer, spokesman for city police.

Altogether, Spencer said officers seized 2 grams of crack cocaine and $1,145 in cash from Bandy and Harper.

Bandy and Harper have since posted bail — set at $10,000 each — and have a probable cause hearing scheduled for Feb. 6, jail records show.

Harper, a Pikeville resident who works at the Fire Tower Road Harris Teeter in Greenville, has no prior criminal record.

Bandy, of St. John’s Village Apartments, has spent 20 months in prison since 2005 for selling a Schedule II controlled substance and driving while license revoked, according to the N.C. Department of Correction’s website.

He also has multiple unsettled traffic violations in Lenoir and Wayne counties for charges of providing fictitious information to an officer, resisting arrest, unlawful window tinting and driving while license revoked.

Wesley Brown can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wbrown@freedomenc.com. Follow him on Twitter @KinstonCrimeSpy.