While wearing
their Town of Wrightsville Beach sanitation uniforms, town employees Laraun
Derik Moultrie and William Evans Bryant IV were arrested in Carolina Beach
during an undercover narcotics operation on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 29.
Carolina Beach
Police Chief Kurt Bartley said Moultrie and Bryant completed the sale of $680
worth of crack-cocaine and marijuana with his undercover officer in the parking
lot of a hotel on Carolina Beach Avenue North. Bartley said Moultrie initiated
the sale and received the money, at which time Bryant gave the drugs to the
officer. The arrest was made after the purchase was complete when a CBPD
officer stopped Moultrie and Bryant on the 1100 block of North Lake Park
Boulevard.
After being
taken to CBPD, Moultrie was placed on a $7,500 secured bond for the charges of
selling and delivering a schedule II controlled substance, selling a delivering
a schedule VI controlled substance, felony possession of a schedule VI
controlled substance, felony possession of a schedule II controlled substance
and maintaining a vehicle for the use and sale of a controlled substance.
Bryant was placed on a $3,000 secured bond for possession of a schedule II
controlled substance, felony possession of a schedule VI controlled substance,
conspiracy to sell and deliver crack-cocaine and conspiracy to sell and deliver
a schedule VI controlled substance. Bartley said he believes both men have
posted bond.
Interim town
manager Tony Wilson said Moultrie was fired the day after his arrest but that
the town is still deciding what to do about Bryant. The Wrightsville Beach
Board of Aldermen held a closed session to discuss the matter after its meeting
on Dec. 13, but Wilson said there was nothing to report from it. Bryant has not
been allowed to return to work with the public works department.
