Churchill, Whitman teens arrested in drug bust

Monday, May 12, 2008

Churchill, Whitman teens arrested in drug bust

Police say more arrests to come in high school scheme

by Audrey Dutton | Staff Writer

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Police arrested and charged two high school students from Bethesda and Potomac in a drug bust on Friday. Police expect to make more arrests in what they believe was a drug-dealing plan by several area high school students.

Four suspects including the two teens were arrested, and marijuana with a street value of about $12,000 was seized as of Monday, police said. The investigation is ongoing.

Police believe several students from high schools including Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Winston Churchill High School in Potomac and Woodrow Wilson High school in northwest Washington “pooled their money together to purchase the marijuana with the believed intent to distribute to other teenagers,“ according to the Montgomery County Police Department’s news release on the drug bust.

Detectives on Friday began investigating a tip that drugs were being distributed from a house on the 800 block of Ivy League Lane in Rockville. The detectives saw Carlos Marroquin, 21, of Silver Spring visit the house and drive away carrying a bag. Detectives followed Marroquin and, with help from a Rockville City Police officer, pulled him over for traffic violations. The officers smelled marijuana. A drug dog assisted them in finding eight ounces of “higher potency“ marijuana in the trunk, police said. Marroquin was charged with possession and released.

At this point, detectives awaiting a search warrant for the house saw two people later identified as high school students enter the house and leave with a bag. They drove away with Paul Peckham, 18, who police identified as the house’s resident.

Marroquin had told police Peckham sold him marijuana.

Detectives pulled over the vehicle with Peckham and the teens, smelled marijuana and found two and a half pounds of marijuana in the trunk. All three were arrested.

Police charged the 17-year-old male Walt Whitman student from Bethesda and 17-year-old female Winston Churchill student from Potomac with possession with intent to distribute.

Police found more marijuana, ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms, packing materials, scales, unidentified “related documents“ and $6,600 in the boy’s home. Additional charges for drugs and paraphernalia are pending, said Lucille Baur, police spokeswoman.

Police searching Peckham’s house found more marijuana, packing materials and scales, and $2,600. He is charged with possession with intent to distribute and an additional two counts of committing the crime in a school zone.

The teens were released to family members. Peckham was released on a $50,000 bond.

All told, police seized about $12,000 worth of marijuana.