“We were assisted by the Scotland Neck Police Department,” Halifax County Sheriff Wes Tripp said this morning, explaining the original case, which also involved a missing person report, led to the federal indictment last month on then 43-year-old Eugene “Gene” Williams of Scotland Neck. “We're continuously doing what we can to battle the drug problem and carry it to the limits whenever we can.”

During the January 10 investigation at the Scotland Neck Inn, deputies seized a stolen handgun, several items of drug paraphernalia, 12 grams of heroin, and 327 bindles of heroin.

The sheriff's office submitted the case to the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina. It was adopted by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The federal indictment reads Williams, “having previously been convicted of a crime punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year, did willingly possess in and affecting commerce a firearm.”

The second count reads Williams knowingly and intentionally possessed with intent to distribute a quantity of heroin while the third count reads he possessed a firearm in the furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

He remains in federal custody until his detention hearing set for Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Raleigh.

In the local case the sheriff's office said at the time Sergeant Eric Johnson and Deputy David McKeel were following up on a missing person report when they received a tip the person may be at the motel.

Arriving at the motel around 4 p.m., the officers found the missing person as well as a person later identified as Williams.