(Memphis) A Raleigh man is in jail with a very high bond of 8 million dollars. The DEA says it busted Ortencio Cawich with more than 8 kilos of cocaine at his house on James Road. Detectives say they found the bricks of cocaine in a truck in the back of the man’s house but say Cawich claimed the truck didn’t belong to him.
Federal agents surrounded the Raleigh house Friday, drawing-in lots of attention from neighbors.
“They were just outside checking out the house and I think they were taking pictures of it,” said neighbor Nicholas Allen.
Neighbors wanted to know what was going on.
“They wouldn`t tell us. I guess they couldn`t tell us,” said Karen Milner.
Saturday, they found out.
“Four black bricks,” Milner read off the police affidavit.
“I declare to myself,” reacted next door neighbor, Bobbie Walton.
The DEA says they found four cocaine bricks wrapped in garbage bags in back of a blue truck, hidden in a tool box weighing a total of 8.5 kilos.
“Oh my goodness gracious,” said Walton.
“I have never seen cocaine so what does 8 kilos look like?” asked Milner.
It has a street value of about $300,000. Investigators kicked down the door of the house on James Road when no one would answer the door and arrested Cawich. Detectives say Cawich told them the house was his but not the blue truck out back. He said it was a friends who left it there more than 2 months ago.
“They do repairs in the back,” said Milner
His neighbor Karen Milner says Cawich is a mechanic and even her daughter’s car is in his backyard waiting to be fixed, “It is still sitting over there but police did search her car yesterday.”
They found no drugs in her car – just those 5,000 plus grams of cocaine in the truck and a rifle in Cawich’s house.
“Are kidding me? I am so glad you came and told me all this,” said Walton.
The neighbors say they might consider being more nosey next time someone moves-in next door.
“Know who is living next to you because I would have never assumed, ever,” said Milner.
Neighbors say he has lived in that house on James Road for less than a year. Cawich may be considered a flight risk because a judge set his bond at $8 million.
