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Bondsman arrested in I-95 drug seizure
By Matt Elofson - Staff writer
LUMBERTON - Authorities say a Georgia bondsman and his girlfriend were trying to make a drug delivery look like a family vacation by including two young children and taking separate cars, but the ruse unfolded during separate traffic stops Monday on Interstate 95.
Sgt. Joe Howell said Sharna Lewis, 29, was stopped near exit 14 in the northbound lane on I-95. Her 41-year-old boyfriend, Christopher Garris, was stopped while driving a separate vehicle about three miles behind Lewis, Howell said.
Howell said police found 10 pounds of cocaine inside a small black suitcase in the trunk of Lewis' car. It had been wrapped inside plastic and separated into four bars. Howell estimated its street value at $308,000.
He said the couple appeared to be headed to Virginia from Atlanta. Each was traveling with a young child.
“(They tried) to make it look like a normal ordinary trip, a family vacation to try and blend in with other travelers so they wouldn't be observed by law enforcement,” Howell said. “What really ties them together is that her child was in his vehicle.”
The girls, ages 10 and 3, were turned over to the county Department of Social Services and placed into the foster care. A judge will rule on whether they should go back to family members in Virginia, police Sgt. Don Ward said.
They were arrested about 3:15 p.m. Howell said Garris, a bail bondsman, had a bulletproof vest in the 2006 Chevrolet sport utility vehicle he was driving. Both vehicles had been rented, Howell said. Police seized an undisclosed amount of cash.
Lewis, of Virginia Beach, Va., and Garris, of Lithonia, Ga., were each charged with trafficking cocaine by transport, trafficking cocaine by possession and conspiracy to traffick cocaine. Each was jailed on a $300,000 bond.
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