Watchful investigators bust man for cocaine at Starbucks
Posted on Friday, November 28, 2008
BENTONVILLE — A Benton County man learned that one never knows who might be watching.
Travis Newell and Sgt. Jarred Crabtree, investigators for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, were at Starbucks in Bentonville on Tuesday morning when Newell noticed a Toyota Forerunner parked next to the investigators’ unmarked car, according to Newell.
Newell said he then noticed a man take a sniff of a white substance from a small spoon, then go into the Starbucks at Arkansas Highway 102 and Walton Boulevard.
Newell and Crabtree confronted the man, whom they later identified as Basil Taysir Khatib. Newell said that at first, Khatib denied that the substance was cocaine but later admitted sniffing the drug in his car.
Basil also gave the investigators permission to search his vehicle, according to Newell. Newell said they found 3 grams of suspected cocaine in the vehicle and on Basil.
Basil was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and was taken to the Benton County Jail. He was later released from custody on citation.
“ You never know who is next to you, ” Newell said about the arrest.
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