U.S. drug probe near TC snares 8

Cortney Lemar Phillips Wanted by the FBI
By DEUCE NIVEN
tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com
Eight people are facing federal drug charges, seven in custody Tuesday as the FBI and area law enforcement agencies served criminal indictments alleging narcotics sales in the Tabor City area.
A “coordinated law enforcement operation” resulted in seven arrests Tuesday morning, a news release from U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina Robert J. Higdon, Jr. said.
That operation included a search warrant service on a home on Lester Watts Road east of Tabor City, Columbus County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Michelle Tatum said. Witnesses reported a large law enforcement presence with multiple weapons taken from the home.
Criminal indictments were served Tuesday on:
- William Cedric Gore, a/k/a “Do Dah”, 35, Tabor City
- Bobby Jermaine Kinlaw, a/k/a “Bah Bah”, 28, of Tabor City
- Craig Eugene Ritter, 28, of Tabor City
- Darriel Scott, 53, of Tabor City
- Jennifer Colorado Wells, 38, of Loris
- Teeya Reeves Scheer, 42, of Whiteville
- Justin Lee Myers, a/k/a “Longbird”, 33, of Myrtle Beach
A warrant is outstanding on Cortney Lemar Phillips, a/k/a “C-Note”, 30, of Loris, who was not immediately located Tuesday.
Myers, Phillips, Gore, Kinlaw, Ritter, Scott, and Wells are charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute cocaine base, cocaine, heroin, a fentanyl, and marijuana.
Myers and Scheer are also charged with five-counts of money laundering.
For more on this story see this week’s Tabor-Loris Tribune in print and online.