Undercover police arrest undercover cop posing as a dealer

An undercover Iredell County Sheriff's Office deputy recently purchased drugs from undercover Statesville police officers, raising questions about communications between the two agencies.

Statesville Police Chief Tom Anderson said undercover officers from his department were working a week-long case when they met with someone interested in selling a small amount of marijuana.

The undercover SPD officers met with the individual in the parking lot of a local store to make the deal, Anderson said. But the officers became suspicious that the seller was, in fact, an undercover deputy, Anderson said.

SPD officers placed a call to Capt. David Ramsey, who heads the sheriff's office narcotics unit, and were told the seller was not a deputy, Anderson said. "At that point we proceeded like we normally do and placed him under arrest," the chief said.

After the arrest, investigators from the sheriff's office arrived and confirmed the seller was an undercover deputy and he was released, Anderson said.

Sheriff Phil Redmond said the initial denial that the deputy worked for the sheriff's office was a mix-up. "We had several large-scale operations going on at once, and the wires got crossed on this one," he said.