UNC grad arrested for cocaine

Benjamin Thomas Nash now faces a charge of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, police said.

A former UNC student has been arrested for felony conspiracy to traffic cocaine as part of an ongoing investigation by the Chapel Hill police narcotics division, Chapel Hill police reports state.

Benjamin Thomas Nash, 24, of Elizabeth City, turned himself in to police Wednesday after a call from police informed him that a warrant had been issued for his arrest, police said. Nash graduated from UNC in 2006.

Nash was present at the 211 Church St. apartment where he and four other current or former UNC students were originally arrested Sept. 15 for cocaine possession, according to police reports. Two of the people arrested face additional charges, including cocaine trafficking, reports state.

Two other students were arrested Monday on cocaine possession charges related to the Sept. 15 bust, reports state.

On the night of the original arrests, Nash was charged with felony possession of less than one gram of cocaine and misdemeanor possession of four grams of marijuana, according to police reports.

He was not informed of the possibility of future charges being filed against him, said Sgt. Jabe Hunter of the Chapel Hill Police Department.

The conspiracy to traffic cocaine charge was issued Monday, according to Chapel Hill police reports.

Hunter said conspiracy to traffic charges come when police believe the suspect knows drug crimes were committed and is involved.

“There has to be some proof that you acted in concert with the others,” Hunter said. “You were knowledgeable and you helped in the fact to commit that crime.”

The Chapel Hill narcotics division began its investigation Sept. 9. A judge issued a search warrant for the 211 Church St. apartment Sept. 15.

The warrant states that during the week of Sept. 6, a confidential informant told Chapel Hill narcotics investigators that two people were selling cocaine out of the Church Street apartment.

The ongoing investigation led them to Nash’s additional charge.

In the original warrant, the informant identified the sellers as a white man in his early 20s going by the nickname “J-Ply” and a white woman in her early 20s named Eliza Vaughan, according to the warrant.

Police purchased cocaine from former student Jonathan Ray Plymale, 22, at the apartment of junior Eliza McQuail Vaughan, 21, one week before the two were found with almost 200 grams of cocaine, the warrant states.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.