CLEVELAND COUNTY, N.C. — The Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office posted a sign in the yard of a home that reads, “This drug house closed for business,” and the resident said he is going to burn it.
The man said deputies raided his property and arrested his father and brother.
The sheriff showed Channel 9′s Dave Faherty paperwork of the dozens of calls deputies responded to at the home over the years.
Narcotics officers spent more than one hour searching the property Wednesday where they said they found crystal meth and ecstasy. Three people were arrested.
“Narcotics or drugs are found there, and we make an arrest,” Sheriff Alan Norman said. “We want the community to know what transpired at that house by leaving a sign there in the yard.”
Deputies said they responded to the home on Lavender Road 29 times last year and have been back six times in 2023.
Deputies posted a photo of the sign on their Facebook page to inform the public.
Neighbors, including Charles Parshall and his wife, said they strongly support the effort to shine a light on the property and its impact on the community.
“People on this road, getting stuff stolen from them,” Parshall said. “And really, the good people on this road have had enough of this.”
“Let everyone know where these people are because they’re coming back,” Parshall’s wife said. “They get out (of jail) and then they come back.”
The man who said he will burn the sign left on his property said that he doesn’t believe declaring the house a drug house should be done before his brother and father go to court.
The sheriff said the signs help alert neighbors about the alleged drug problems and often lead to more community involvement in narcotics cases.
“It’s a line of communication for the community that we’re actually serving,” Norman said. “It drives information back into the narcotics division on where other drug houses may be.”
The sheriff says the execution of the search warrant stemmed from numerous drug complaints from the community and that led to undercover operations there.
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