AULANDER – A traffic stop performed on an individual known to be driving on a revoked license turned into much more than a simple citation near here last week.

Thanks to the work of the Hertford County Sheriff’s Office, the Down East Drug Task Force and K-9 “Bosch”, an Aulander man was arrested and charged with drug possession. Included in the drugs seized from the vehicle was nearly 20 grams of heroin.

Kenneth Lamont Lassiter, 40, of Mill Branch Church Road was arrested on Sept. 20. He was charged with two felony counts of trafficking heroin, and one felony count each of possession with intent to sell and deliver heroin, and possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana.

Lassiter was originally jailed under a $500,000 secured bond. That bond was later reduced at his initial court appearance on Sept. 22 and he made bail.

Hertford County Sheriff’s Investigator Chase Oliver filed the arrest report. In that document, Oliver stated he and a member of the Down East Drug Task Force were traveling along Mill Branch Church Road on Sept. 20 where they noticed a Chevrolet Camaro convertible operated by Lassiter. Aware that Lassiter was driving on a revoked license, the law enforcement officers performed a traffic stop on the vehicle just past the Odom Road intersection.

“While my colleague was writing Mr. Lassiter a citation for operating a motor vehicle on a revoked license, Bosch performed a narcotics sniff around the vehicle,” Oliver wrote in his report, noting that the car’s convertible top was down.

Oliver said on two separate occasions, Bosch alerted him to an area in the back seat of the vehicle.

“At that time, I searched the back seat and found a 19.2 grams of a brownish powder, believed to be heroin, inside of a cigarette box,” Oliver stated. “I also discovered one bindle of heroin, two bags of marijuana, and two Oxycodone pills.”

Oliver said after transporting Lassiter to the Sheriff’s Office in Winton and speaking to him about the illegal drugs located in the vehicle, Lassiter remarked that he was not aware of their presence in a car that he owned and that someone else must have placed them there.

Lassiter was additionally charged with maintaining a vehicle to keep controlled substances and possession of drug paraphernalia.

“I would like to thank Investigator Oliver and the Down East Drug Task Force Agent for being so observant in recognizing that the driver of the vehicle was in violation of a traffic law by operating a motor vehicle without a valid license,” said Hertford County Sheriff Dexter Hayes. “The end result was keeping approximately 20 grams of heroin off the street and putting a person responsible for spreading this poison within our community behind bars.”