WPD: Gang member jailed under $10M bond on drug charges

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Wilmington Police say a validated gang member and known heroin dealer is back behind bars under $10 million bond.

According to a news release, Wilmington Police vice detectives and officers with the Mobile Field Force were walking in the 100 block of N. Front Street Tuesday, when they recognized Damien Tatron McGill, 28, of Wilmington. Police say McGill is on pre-trial release and electronic monitoring. They say he also had an outstanding warrant for driving while license revoked.

Police say McGill was arrested without a problem, but when they searched him, they found 90 bindles of heroin and several hundred dollars in cash. That led detectives to get a search warrant for McGill’s home at 1408 Grace St., Apt. B. A search there turned up more than 700 bindles of heroin, 8 grams of raw heroin, 11 grams of crack and more than $5,000 cash.

Investigators charged McGill with two counts of trafficking heroin, possession with the intent to sell and deliver heroin, possession of heroin, PWISD docaine, maintaining a dwelling for a controlled substance, manufacturing a schedule 1 controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and manufacture/sell/deliver/possess a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a park.

McGill is in the New Hanover County Jail under a $10 million secured bond.

McGill has had plenty of trouble with the law over the years. The NC Department of Public Safety website shows his record dates back to 2003, including convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, resisting an officer, assault on a school official, drug possession, possession of stolen goods and burglary. According to records, McGill has spent more than six years in state prison.

McGill was one of four people charged in connection to a barber shop robbery last fall in Wilmington.

Court records show he also has a pending DWI charge in Duplin County and faces a charge of possession of a firearm by a felon in New Hanover County.