Durham Police Department officers arrested a Duke student in Trinity Park Wednesday in conjunction with an ongoing drug-trafficking investigation, administrators confirmed.
The student, a resident of 1026 W. Trinity Ave., was arrested around 12:30 p.m.
Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta said Wednesday night that he believed the student had been released.
"I spoke with the student who was arrested and we've had a conversation about what may or may not have happened," Moneta said. "Our contacts with the students [who live in the house] have been quite preliminary and predominately to make sure they're okay. Some or all of them have chosen to relocate for the night.... From what we understand, it was pretty traumatic."
Neighbors reported that a man wearing a shirt with the logo of delivery service DHL got out of a plain white SUV carrying a wine-case-sized package. A resident signed for the package, at which point police approached and more people got out of the van. Eleanor Richardson, who lives next door to the student, said police waiting in an adjacent alleyway were dressed with "helmets on, armor, carrying machine-gun-looking things."
Although Duke University Police Department Maj. Gloria Graham confirmed that the narcotics arrest had been made, she said she did not know the probable cause for any charges.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation began conducting a similar inquiry last April, after 17 pounds of marijuana were delivered via DHL to a student's campus address in Craven Quadrangle. The student was cleared of all charges two weeks later.
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