38-year-old Melanie Jean Lacy of 1st Avenue SE in Hickory was arrested Thursday (October 17) by Conover Police Officers. She's charged with failure to appear on a count of larceny of a motor vehicle. Lacy was detained in the Catawba County Detention Facility under $10,000 bond. A District Court appearance is scheduled for next Monday (October 21).

47-year-old Timothy Wayne Ivey, Jr. of the Scotland County town of Wagram, NC, was arrested Wednesday (October 16) by Lincoln County Sheriff's Officers. He's charged with felony counts of breaking and entering, larceny after breaking and entering, and possession of stolen goods.

On Wednesday, a deputy responded to a breaking and entering call at a residence on Executive Circle in Denver, NC. Upon arrival the officer made contact with the homeowner. She said that she received a call from a neighbor telling her the lights were on in her deceased mother’s home.

The owner said when she arrived she discovered an intoxicated male sleeping on a couch in the residence. She identified the man as Timothy Ivey and asked him to leave and he complied. She checked the residence and discovered it had been gone through and a window beside the back door was open.

A family friend provided the owner with a ring that belonged to the owner’s mother. The ring had been obtained by the friend’s husband who identified Timothy Wayne Ivey, Jr. as the person who gave him the ring.

Ivey was arrested and placed in the Harven A. Crouse Detention Center under a $10,000 secured bond. A District Court appearance was scheduled today (October 18).

49-year-old Martin Luther Dixon and 34-year-old Michelle Latoya Jones, both of the same address on Sugar Hill Road in Holly Hill, S.C., were arrested by Hickory Police shortly after 5 p.m. yesterday (October 16) on three felony warrants each as fugitives awaiting extradition to another state.

Dixon and Jones are both wanted by authorities in Richland County, S.C. on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, and second-degree arson. The complainant on H.P.D.'s arrest reports is listed as the Columbia, S.C. Police Department.

The two were taken into custody without incident yesterday at a hotel on 13th Avenue Drive N.W. in Hickory. Dixon and Jones were placed in the Catawba Co. Detention Facility with bond for each set at $900,000, secured. They will make first appearances in District Court on October 21 in Newton.

Catawba County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Division investigators have partnered with local, state and federal law enforcement officials in an investigation which has resulted in the conviction of seventeen drug traffickers and/or distributors in United States District Court.

On Wednesday U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell sentenced 40-year-old Ricardo Cervantes-Sanchez of Mexico who was residing in Hickory, to 188 months in prison and five years of supervised release on drug conspiracy charges, announced Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Cervantes-Sanchez was a multi-kilogram level distributor of methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana, operating mainly out of North Carolina and Tennessee.

Cervantes-Sanchez’s co-defendant, 22-year-old Raymundo Villarreal of Newton, was also sentenced to eight years in prison and five years of supervised release for his role in the drug conspiracy. According to Wednesday's sentencing hearings and filed court documents in this and related cases, from 2014 until August 2018, Cervantes-Sanchez and Villarreal were part of a drug distribution ring responsible for trafficking methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana in Western North Carolina, centered in and around Catawba County.

The conspiracy extended well beyond North Carolina to Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, California, Illinois, Mexico and elsewhere, and involved the trafficking of multi-kilogram quantities of narcotics. Several defendants received sentencing enhancements for their possession of firearms during the conspiracy.

In addition to Cervantes-Sanchez and Villarreal, to date, 15 additional defendants involved in the poly-drug conspiracy have been sentenced to prison, as follows:

Tommy Boyett was sentenced to 198 months in prison. Martin Santillan was sentenced to 156 months in prison. Joey Carroll was sentenced to 150 months in prison. Robert Long was sentenced to 144 months in prison. Ricky Moses was sentenced to 132 months in prison. Juan Villarreal was sentenced to 125 months in prison. David McIntosh was sentenced to 120 months in prison. Jamie Sigmon was sentenced to 114 months in prison.

Rogelio Santillan was sentenced to 101 months in prison. Jesus Bedolla was sentenced to 81 months in prison. Ivan Garcia-Arcos was sentenced to 70 months in prison. Samuel Ibarra was sentenced to 60 months in prison. Jose Villagomez was sentenced to 57 months in prison. Manuel Martinez was sentenced to 46 months in prison. Clayton Rivera-Trejo was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

In making Wednesday’s announcement, U.S. Attorney Murray commended the work of the Drug Enforcement Administration with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Secret Service; the United States Probation Office; the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation; the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office; the Alexander County Sheriff’s Office; the Hickory Police Department; the Newton Police Department; the Lincolnton Police Department; the Maiden Police Department; and the Cornelius Police Department. U.S. Attorney Murray also thanked the DEA’s offices in McAllen, Texas; Louisville, Kentucky; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Knoxville Tennessee, and the 9th Judicial Drug Task Force in Tennessee for their assistance in this case.