Watch leader says her drug arrest is simply a mixup
FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- Gloria Wilkinson Gutierrez says that after five years of fighting crime in her neighborhood, crime came to her door Thursday.
She maintains she is the victim of mistaken identity, and is not a drug dealer.
The 63-year-old Neighborhood Watch coordinator was arrested Thursday after narcotics officers say a box with 3 pounds of marijuana was delivered to her home.
On Thursday, the Fayetteville Police Narcotics Unit arrested and charged Gutierrez, of the 1100 block of Brenda Drive, with possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana, manufacturing marijuana, and maintaining a dwelling for the keeping and selling of a controlled substance.
Friday night, in her living room converted to a neighborhood-watch office, Gutierrez told ABC11 she had no idea what was in the box, where it came from or who it was supposed to go to.
"I didn't look at the box, I took the box and set it down," Gutierrez said. "I don't even know whose name was on it. I didn't even look at it, and I can't find my glasses, so if I looked at it I wouldn't have known whose name was on it."
Gutierrez was the community watch leader for the Westarea Heights community.
She was processed at the Cumberland County Detention Center where she received a $15,000 unsecured bond. She has since been freed on the unsecured bond and has another court date later this month.
She vows to fight to clear her name.
Police have not commented on the arrest other than to say they had tracked the package to her address.
