Police arrest three in drug search

Three Columbia residents were arrested Friday afternoon on suspicion of having connections to what police called a “significant crack-cocaine distribution organization.”

Warren D. Spain, 36; Shawn C. Henderson, 37; and Marvin Payne Jr., 41, were arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance by the Boone County Sheriff’s Department and the Columbia Police Department. Payne was also arrested on suspicion of tampering with evidence.

Britt Shea, a detective with the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, said the arrests came after a six-month investigation into a crack-cocaine distribution organization being run out of a residence in the 2800 block of Mulberry Drive.

Shea said a warrant was obtained after the investigation revealed that “activities got to be enough of a problem in the neighborhood where action was necessary,” and officers from the Sheriff’s and Police departments were dispatched.

As officers approached the residence, a man who had just left the house after an apparent drug deal ran from the front yard, Shea said. In an effort to destroy or hide evidence, Shea said the man threw a quantity of crack cocaine on the ground. After a short pursuit on foot, officers arrested the man, Shea said.

Two more arrests were made inside the house, where officers recovered roughly one gram of crack cocaine, Shea said.

Five of Henderson’s children, ranging in age from 3 to 16, were left in the house in the care of a third adult who was not arrested, Shea said. A call was made to the Department of Social Services, Shea said.

While the amount of crack cocaine was enough to justify arrests, Shea said it was not clear how big the drug operation law enforcement officials have been following actually is, and that investigations will continue.

Spain served three years in prison for possession of a controlled substance in 1998 and, at the time of his arrest Friday, was on probation stemming from a 2005 arrest for the same charge, Shea said.

Bond was set at $4,500 each for Spain, Henderson and Payne on Friday. As of Saturday afternoon, Spain and Henderson had both posted bond, but Payne remained in custody at the Boone County Jail, Shea said.