A house already in civil litigation for nuisance abatement was raided late Thursday night following an investigation by the Weldon Police Department.

Two people were arrested, one for an outstanding warrant and the heir of the property for maintaining a dwelling place to manufacture and sell controlled substances.

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Robert Champion, who in May was arrested in Weldon for allegedly selling drugs was at the house. The $1,500 he had in his pocket was seized by Lieutenant Scott Hall of the Halifax County Sheriff's Office to pay a debt to the state Department of Revenue on taxes owed for drugs allegedly found during a previous arrest. Champion and his brother, Calvin, were both charged in the May arrest.

More than a dozen people were at the house on 209 Ransome Circle in the Scoco Park community when officers from Weldon and Garysburg and sheriff's office narcotics agents arrived.

Detainees are forced to the ground.

Officers detained several people, handcuffing them and forcing some to the ground. Most of those detained were under a shelter outside the house and had been sitting at a picnic table when the officers arrived.

As detainees were let go onlookers across the street cheered their release.

One man who sat in a lawn chair outside said he didn't know what was going on. Asked if he knew the house was under investigation for drug sales or if he had witnessed drug sales, he said, “I have no idea. I don't come over here like that. They come over to cook and eat.”

Police have acknowledged the Community House gets its name because of the spreads put on, but they also say it serves as a house where drug deals occur and where there have been rapes and shootings.

One woman who was detained repeatedly declined to discuss what went on at the house, saying her job was to sell anatomically correct sex toys to women. She also complained that one of the officers put a gun to her head. She was later released.

As detainees were released officers began a search of the house and the grounds. They found paraphernalia, a small piece of marijuana and two eight balls of crack cocaine in the wood line.

Macon with Champion.

Inside the house, narcotics agents counted Champion's money. Asked for a comment, Champion turned away and when pressed about what happened to his brother's dogs, which were discovered with battle scars from fighting in a raid in Roanoke Rapids, he said, “What happened to your dogs? I wasn't charged with no dogs. You need to get your (expletive deleted) out of here.”

Champion's money is counted, left, while an officer holds crack cocaine.

Once Champion's money was seized he was later let go and the onlookers across the street again cheered.

The officers charged Mark Jones, an heir to property, and also charged Reginald Edwards on an outstanding warrant.

Before the raid, Weldon Police Chief Mark Macon said despite the pressure being put on the house, officers have observed continued drug deals.

The nuisance abatement proceedings are currently in civil court, the chief said. “We're trying to force the owners to curtail the drug sales.”

Macon said the evidence found at the scene strengthens the case for nuisance abatement. “It runs concurrent with what we've been doing. I've been here five years and it's been going on since then.”