HAMLET — Police have charged a man with drug trafficking following a traffic stop last week.
According to a Facebook post from the Hamlet Police Department, officers stopped a vehicle around 12:43 a.m. June 23 for an unspecified violation when a passenger jumped out and ran.
Officers continued the investigation of the violation, and had the driver step out of the vehicle. That’s when they reportedly saw a clear plastic bag with 71.5 grams of a powdery substance, suspected to be cocaine beside the driver’s seat and console.
According to state law, any amount larger than 28 grams is considered trafficking.
The driver, 37-year-old Matthew Lamar Bembry was arrested and charged with trafficking in cocaine; possession with intent to sell or deliver cocaine; maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or place for a controlled substance; and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He was booked into the Richmond County Jail on a $125,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court July 7.
There is no record of any court date for traffic violations.
Jail records show Bembry is also charged with two counts of failure to appear for a show cause hearing.
Records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction show Bembry’s parole ended exactly two years prior to his recent arrest.
Bembry had spent nearly a year and a half behind bars after his probation from a 2016 Guilford County Conviction — on two counts of uttering a forged instrument and one count of obtaining property by false pretenses — was revoked when he was convicted in Richmond County of possession with intent to sell a Schedule VI controlled substance.
He was first convicted in 2003 of robbery with a dangerous weapon in Richmond County, resulting in being locked up for two years and 11 months.
Bembry was convicted in February 2008 of possession with intent to sell a Schedule VI controlled substance and given probation.
However, that probation was revoked in September of the same year when he was convicted on a misdemeanor count of assault inflicting serious injury.
His sentences were served concurrently, with more time given for marijuana possession than assault.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
