CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Local and federal law enforcement officials say the six-month-long investigation into a northeast Charlotte hotel is just the beginning of an effort to make the Sugar Creek corridor safer.
U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson referred to the entire corridor as an “open-air drug market”. He gave a warning to other hotel operators nearby, saying if they’re cooperating with criminals instead of cops, law enforcement will seize their properties, just like they did with the Garden Inn on Wednesday.
“We cannot let pockets of Charlotte become safe for criminals and not safe for anyone else,” said Ferguson. “We cannot do it.”
It’s an area that’s long been on Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers’ and city leaders’ radars. In fact, at the Garden Inn alone, officers received 590 calls for service and made 47 arrests from the beginning of January 2024 to May 18 of this year…