FBI agents arrest Cary resident on cocaine-selling charges

FBI agents and state and local officers arrested a man at his Hamilton Court apartment Tuesday, saying he had twice sold cocaine to an informant who met with him at a nearby Waffle House restaurant.

Jermaine Lawrence Johnson, 34, of 1238 Hamilton Court had met with the informant on Dec. 5 and then on March 5 outside the restaurant at 1724 Walnut St., near the Cary Crossroads shopping center, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed after the arrest.

FBI Special Agent Robert Richards told a federal magistrate that Johnson had sold 27.7 grams (about 1 ounce) of cocaine the first time and 56.7 grams (about 2 ounces) the second time, each time taking money that agents had given the informant after recording the serial numbers on the bills.

The meet last Saturday night began outside a Panera Bread on Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh, then moved to the Waffle House after the informant told Johnson that the informant didn’t want to buy 3 ounces that Johnson had brought, Richards wrote in asking for an arrest warrant.

Johnson, the FBI agent said, had to go home to weigh out 2 ounces before then meeting again at the Waffle House, the complaint alleged.

Richard is assigned to a federal-state-local effort called the Raleigh-Durham Safe Streets Task Force. He said the information that led agents to Johnson came from Raleigh police and other unspecified members of the task force.

Johnson was taken before a magistrate and turned over to the U.S. Marshals Service. He was being held in the Franklin County Jail for a hearing in federal court in Raleigh on Friday, records showed.

State prison records show that Johnson was convicted in Wake County in February 2005 on state charges of trafficking in cocaine the year before. He was released from prison in June 2008, the records state.

He had been convicted of cocaine possession in 2002 and was sentenced to probation, the records show.

This story was originally published March 9, 2016 at 11:48 AM with the headline "FBI agents arrest Cary resident on cocaine-selling charges."