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 last month.
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 to a Carolina Beach 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 narcotics 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 and 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 a schedule II controlled substance, and conspiracy to sell and deliver a schedule VI controlled substance. Bartley said during a telephone interview on Tuesday, Dec. 18 that he believed 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.
