Man held after raid on motel room
A local man was arrested Tuesday afternoon on multiple felony drug charges after Hot Springs police executed a search warrant on his motel room.
Rodney Dewayne Harper, 42, who lists his address as the Shamrock Motel, 508 Albert Pike
Road, was taken into custody at the motel around 2:15 p.m. Tuesday and charged with felony counts of possession of methamphetamine and cocaine with purpose to deliver, unauthorized use of another person’s property to facilitate a crime, possession of drug parapher-
nalia and furnishing, possessing or using prohibited article, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
He was also charged with a misdemeanor count of possession of marijuana with purpose to deliver, punishable by up to one year in jail, and an unclassified charge of proximity to certain facilities as his motel room was 681 feet away from a church.
Harper remained in custody Wednesday in lieu of bonds totaling $26,000 and is set to appear June 20 in Garland County District Court.
According to the affidavit, Investigator Trent Chadick and other members of the police Special Investigation Division — Narcotics Unit executed the search warrant and found Harper inside the room.
A thorough search reportedly uncovered a set of digital scales coated with a “white powdery residue,” a box of sandwich baggies containing the same residue, several razor blades coated with the same substance and more baggies with the corners cut off, all located in the kitchen. They also allegedly found $25 inside the room.
In Harper’s vehicle, investigators reportedly located a smokeless tobacco can containing a baggie with 1.1 grams of suspected marijuana.
Investigators repeatedly asked Harper if he had any more narcotics concealed on his person prior to him being transported to the detention center and he denied having anything. He was searched at the jail and deputies allegedly discovered two plastic baggies concealed under his privates, and
$714 in his wallet and pocket. The first baggie contained
17 individually packaged bags containing a white powered substance that tested positive for meth, about 4 grams total. The second baggie held 13 individually packaged bags allegedly containing a white rock substance that later tested positive for cocaine, with a total weight of 3 grams.
Harper’s failure to admit to having drugs in his possession resulted in him facing the additional charge for bringing a controlled substance into the detention center.