Home Crime Pair accused of trafficking meth from East Rockingham home

Pair accused of trafficking meth from East Rockingham home

ROCKINGHAM — Two men are facing multiple charges following a Richmond County Sheriff’s Office investigation of drug activity in East Rockingham.

According to a press release, investigators had received multiple complaints about drug activity at Hickory Street home.

On Friday, the RCSO Community Impact Team — with help from the Rockingham Police Department’s Vice/Narcotics Unit, the RCSO Special Response Team and the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation — served a search warrant at the home.

During the search, investigators reportedly found 28 grams of methamphetamine, 126 grams of suspected fentanyl, a gram of heroin, an unspecified quantity of hydrocodone pills, “numerous items used for manufacturing and packaging illegal substances,” and an unspecified amount of U.S. currency.

Investigators also reportedly recovered four handguns, one of which had been reported stolen from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Brian Keith Dixon, 57, is believed to have been responsible for the drug activity. He was arrested and charged with: trafficking in methamphetamine; possession with intent to sell or deliver a Schedule I controlled substance and possession of a stolen firearm.

Dixon was booked into the Richmond County Jail under a $225,000 secured bond.

Investigators also arrested another man who was at the home, 28-year-old Brandon Wayne Benoist, and charged him with trafficking in methamphetamine and possession with intent to sell or deliver heroin. He was jailed under a $200,000 secured bond.

Both were still in jail early Monday afternoon and are scheduled to appear in court Aug. 18.

Dixon is still on parole from a November 2021 conviction on charges of possession with intent to sell a Schedule II controlled substance, possession of a schedule II controlled substance and fleeing to elude arrest, according to records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction. He was released April 20 and his parole is scheduled to end Jan. 15, 2023.

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Records show Dixon was first convicted of felony breaking and entering in 1983, spending a year behind bars. His record in North Carolina is clear until 2015, when he was convicted of possession with intent to sell a Schedule I controlled substance and possession or distribution of a meth precursor in Brunswick County, for which he served nearly 10 months in prison.

Benoist was first convicted in 2011 of misdemeanor larceny, records show.

Two years later, Benoist was convicted in Moore County of misdemeanor possession of a Schedule IV controlled substance.

Benoist’s most recent conviction was in 2019 for assault with a deadly weapon and injury to personal property.

All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.



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