RFP Staff
♦ While the heroin, meth, and crack epidemic rages on with no end in sight throughout Salisbury and Rowan County, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office joined forces with the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and federal agents in an attempt to staunch the flow of large amounts of crystal meth AKA “Ice”, a purer crystalline form of meth, and heroin reported to be transported from Mexico to California to Washington State to North Carolina.
According to sources in the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, Mexican meth “Ice” and heroin were showing up in Rowan County and one distribution center was shut down. 31 persons face federal drug charges with one individual facing pending charges.
On March 4th, 2017, after 3 year investigation, Federal agents along with deputies of the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office and the SBI executed a search warrant on a trailer on 3045 Artz Road near Faith, N.C. Three residents Morgan Nichole Pepper, 31, David Earl Fox, 51, and Matthew Walter Robertson, 31, were arrested. According to the warrant, the Artz road trailer home was suspected of being a distribution center for a National op with ties to a Mexican cartel and the Aryan Brotherhood motorcycle gang.
3045 Artz Road trailer in Rowan County:
Location 3045 Artz Road in Rowan County:
Morgan Nichole Pepper:
David Earl Fox:
Matthew Walter Robertson:
Arayan Brotherhood Motorcycle Gang “Tat”:
Back on October 29th, 2015 a huge break in the case arrived when law enforcement seized 7.72 pounds of meth from the Mt. Pleasant, N.C. home of Hope Elizabeth Berrier.
From the RFP article on November 1st, 2015: “Five Rounded Up in Meth Bust in Salisbury, N.C., Rowan, and Cabarrus Since Thursday for Alleged Conspiracy”:
“Rowan County Sheriff’s Office Deputies and Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office deputies made inroads on Salisbury’s and Rowan County’s Meth epidemic when they rounded up five alleged meth conspirators since Thursday and charged them with conspiring to traffic substantial amounts of methamphetamine alleged to be over several hundred grams in weight.
The Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office arrested Hope Elizabeth Berrier, 39, formerly of Salisbury and now living in Cabarrus on Thursday. She was charged with traffic in amphetamine (felony) and maintaining a vehicle/dwelling/place cs (felony). Under a secured $250,010 bond, Berrier remains in the Cabarrus County Jail.
On Friday Tonya Renay Garrison, 38, of Gold Hill, Shannon Dale Hartman, 40, of Rowan County, and Teresa Lynn Hurley, 37, of Rowan County were all arrested and uniformly charged with conspiracy (felony). All of their secured bonds are set at $500,000
John Clinton Dunbar, 40, of Salisbury already in the Rowan County Detention Center for multiple charges, was charged Saturday with conspire to traffic in methamphetamine (felony).
The RFP article about John Clinton Dunbar’s October Rockwell arrest for an alleged $30,000 meth haul:
Berrier’s Previous Record:
Dunbar’s Previous Record:
Hartman’s Previous Record:
Hope Elizabeth Berrier:
Teresa Lynn Hurley:
Tonya Renay Garrison:
Shannon Dale Hartman:
John Clinton Dunbar:
Later Dunbar was alleged to be member of the Aryan Brotherhood. Fox and Robertson were identified as customers of Dunbar. A warrant alleges that Dunbar, Fox, and Robertson received crystal meth “Ice” from Oliver Dwayne Quinn AKA “Mall of America”. Quinn allegedly couriered meth “Ice” every one to two weeks in 4 to 8 ounce packets to Rowan County from his Atlanta base. A witness alleged Quinn sold the “Ice” to Fox for from $500 to $700 per ounce.
According to law enforcement sources 3045 Artz Road was the center of activity with individuals arriving to purchase meth or heroin all hours of the day or night. Pepper was alleged to handle most of the heroin sales there.
32 persons, many familiar to the readers of the RFP, were indicted in the U.S. District Court for the North Carolina Middle District in Greensboro. Thomas David “The Chemist” Martinez is among the 32.
Thomas David “The Chemist” Martinez:
