The Greensboro police Department sent a bold message to drug sealers and users in their city with a substantial drug seizure that also resulted in two arrests. The department in a Wednesday night drug raid that is sure to get the attention of anyone in the area who is dabbling in the narcotics trade took several thousands of dollars worth of drugs and miscellaneous items.

As of noon Thursday, over $6,000 in cash had been recovered along with an undetermined amount of drugs. An undercover agent who assisted in the sting said because of the large amount it would be a while before they were able to place an exact value.

“We are still counting,” the agent said. “We have a fresh brick of marijuana, which probably had a couple of pounds in that. We had over 30 grams of crack cocaine and we also recovered a .22 rifle and some other things.”

Also confiscated was a stolen Yamaha four-wheeler, a generator, a chainsaw and other equipment.

A 2000 Chevy Silverado pickup and an Infinite luxury vehicle were also taken into custody along with a boat.

Arrested in the sting was Anthony Dwayne Fowler, 37, of Greensboro and Carl Moore, 27, of Forkland. Fowler was apparently the distributor and Moore was an unfortunate customer. More arrests are expected to follow.

“Apparently, he had purchased about a half a pound or more of marijuana from Fowler,” the agent said of Moore. “We are going to make more arrests because this game continues on and on.”

Greensboro Police Chief Claude E. Hamilton said they plan to stay on the path.

“We are still going through with more investigations,” Hamilton said. “When you have that much marijuana there is someone else involved and we plan to clean it up.”

Hamilton made it clear that drugs would not thrive in his town. He said he and his entire force would do whatever it took to get them off the streets.

“There is going to be more of this to come,” Hamilton said. “We are not going to tolerate drugs in Greensboro. It is difficult to work drugs, it takes a lot of time and we don’t have a lot of money to do it with, but we are going to get it done.”

The raid was mostly the work of the city’s drug task force. Hamilton said their narcotics man had put in long hours in preparation for the sting.

“Our narcotics officer Sgt. Cleophus Atkinson is in charge of our narcotics division and he has been working on it for about three weeks,” Hamilton said. “Last night at about 7:30 p.m. we did the search where Fowler was arrested.”

The task force and other Greensboro officers, a long with the Hale County Sheriff’s Department were on the scene to recover the drugs and make the arrests.

So just how dedicated is the GPD to getting drugs off the streets? Hamilton said many officers had sacrificed time at home to put the department’s full effort into the bust.

“A lot of these guys are out here doing this on their own time,” Hamilton said. “We are going to keep on working drugs and we are going to work until we get all of it.”