Crack cocaine trafficking operation involving 12-year-olds busted, Columbia police say
Columbia narcotic investigators raided a house near two schools that they say was the base of operation for a crack cocaine trafficking scheme using children.
The Columbia Police Department arrested 38-year-old Nickolas Guild, 34-year-old Ashley Hopkins and two 12-year-old boys at a Harper Street home on Nov. 8. The department announced the arrests Friday.
The suspects came to the department’s attention after citizens complained about activity at their Harper Street house, off the 2100 block of Two Notch Road. The house is within a half mile of Carver-Lyon Elementary School and C.A. Johnson High School.
The narcotics investigators found crack, cocaine and marijuana along with “a large amount” of cash inside the home, the department said.
Police charged Guild and Hopkins with trafficking crack cocaine, possession to distribute cocaine and simple marijuana possession. They were also charged with separate offenses for allegedly dealing drugs near the schools. Along with the drug offenses, police charge them each with two counts of contributing to delinquency of a minor and two counts of child neglect.
The 12-year-olds were charged with trafficking crack cocaine and separate counts of trafficking the drugs near a school. Police charged the juveniles with simple marijuana possession as well.
Guild and Hopkins were booked at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center where a judge denied Guild bond. Hopkins was released on a $50,000 bond.
The Department of Social Services took custody of the boys while juvenile court proceedings are worked out.
The crime of trafficking crack cocaine means a suspect is moving 10 or more grams of the drug. The crime is punishable with between three and 30 years in prison depending on a suspect’s criminal record. Simple marijuana possession means a suspect had a small about of the drug, which is punishable by a fine or 30 days in jail.
This is not the first time Guild was arrested and charged by Columbia police.
He has 27 pending charges against him, mostly for drug and child neglect offenses, from arrests in June and October, court records show. He’s awaiting trial on those charges.
Guild was on house arrest as a condition of his bond for a previous charge, police said.
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 4:49 PM.