NEWTON — A former Hickory Police Department civilian employee was taken into custody and charged with multiple drug felonies Friday.
Victoria Yang, 22, of Claremont, was charged with one felony count each of trafficking marijuana, possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana, and conspiring to traffic marijuana. She was issued a $15,000 secured bond.
The charges came after Blong Ly Vang, 34, of Claremont, was charged with one felony count of trafficking marijuana, one felony count of possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana, and one felony count of maintaining a dwelling for a controlled substance Monday afternoon.
CCSO Capt. Jason Reid said that initially, Vang and Yang gave consent for investigators to search the residence. Upon finding a handgun, the homeowners revoked consent, leading to investigators securing the home and applying for and executing a search warrant.
Reid said an initial 2-3 pounds of marijuana were found in the master bedroom, with the rest of the marijuana found in large plastic containers throughout the living area of the home.
“This is not a smoke bag that somebody had laying around their home getting high; this is definitely for distribution,” Reid said Tuesday. “We estimated (the marijuana) at a low-end value of about $130,000. That’s going at about $2,000 per pound, and usually this type of marijuana goes for more than that per pound.”
In a press release issued Tuesday, HPD confirmed there was person living at the residence who was a civilian employee of the department. The civilian employee is no longer employed by HPD, and per departmental policy, HPD is conducting an internal investigation.
“We requested Ms. Yang’s inquiries from Hickory Police Department, they’ve been very cooperative with us,” Reid said outside the sheriff’s office Friday.
“We spoke to (HPD) officials today, they said they do have those for us, we’ll pick those up on Monday; there may be some inquiries that are extremely important to investigations that we’ve been conducting or other law enforcement agencies.”
Reid said the charges came about Friday after evidence surfaced of Yang being implicated in the investigation.
“We feel very strongly she was a co-conspirator, and due to some other physical evidence over the last couple days, it helped prove to us that she knew more about than what she originally let on,” Reid said.
“We wanted to make sure the other 62 pounds of marijuana found throughout the home she had knowledge of and that she knew at least some of her family, meaning the boyfriend (Vang), was participating in the distribution of marijuana,” Reid said. “Knowing we found 2-3 pounds in the master living area, it’s kind of hard to deny that.”
Reid said investigators requested the files in order to ensure Yang had not comprised safety of other officers or undercover agents by running inquiries at her place of work.
“We want to make sure she was not running any type of inquiries in reference to any undercover officers that not only work here but anywhere in Catawba County or the surrounding agencies,” Reid said. “We wanted to also make sure she wasn’t running the names of any individuals that were confidential informants for us or anyone else.”
Vang told Catawba County District Court Judge Amy Sigmon Walker Tuesday he would hire his own attorney rather than elect for court-appointed counsel or represent himself at his first appearance hearing. His probable cause hearing is scheduled for Feb. 20.
credit:hickoryrecord.com
