Santa Barbara – Some drug dealers will sell their wares to absolutely anyone with sufficient cash in hand. Others will sell illicit drugs “on credit”, but the carrying charges and penalties for failure to timely remit are generally too severe for most recreational drug users to contemplate.
And then there are the protocols allegedly imposed by Jeffrey Nicholas Carpenter who informed his potential customers—primarily members of local high school student bodies—that he would not sell marijuana to them if their academic standing was insufficient or if they were using methamphetamines. Carpenter himself, however, didn’t subscribe to any of society’s “rules” against selling controlled substances. Evidence of that slight oversight came on March 23rd when, according to Santa Barbara Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt Riley Harwood, he endeavored to consummate a sale of marijuana to a member of law enforcement working undercover on the campus at Santa Barbara High School.
SBPD Officer Shawn Hill was on campus with the full knowledge and cooperation of school staff and administrators for the purpose of investigating a reported rash of drug sales “being arranged via text messages” wherein delivery of marijuana was made just off high school grounds. Officer Hill—pursuant to his undercover work in the hallways of the high school—managed to obtain the cellphone number of a known source of marijuana and simply dialed that number to arrange a transaction for what was described by Harwood as “$35.00 worth of marijuana.”
Once the call was made and the purchase was agreed to, all Hill had to do was wait on a nearby intersection. When Carpenter, a 28 year-old Santa Barbara resident showed up with the goods, he was promptly arrested and taken into custody. A search of his vehicle pursuant to the probable cause for his arrest revealed a Mason jar filled with marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia, as well as more than $300 in cash. Just as incriminating was the cellphone with which he had conducted the sale to Hill, as well as “a history of text messages that were solicitations to buy marijuana.”
Carpenter was booked into Santa Barbara County jail on charges of possession of marijuana for sale and transportation of marijuana for sale, with his bail set at $20,000.
Read more:
EdHat: Marijuana dealer arrested
KCOY: Man admits to rewarding good students with marijuana
