A convicted drug trafficker was arrested after deputies caught the Laurel Hill felon with more than $300 worth of cocaine during an undercover sting, according to the sheriff's office.

Deputies executed a search warrant on the Walters Road home of 36-year-old Jerrold Vaughn Leake on Friday afternoon, finding nearly 5 grams of crack cocaine in the home, according to Investigator Earl Haywood.

Leake was charged with possession with the intent to sell and deliver crack cocaine, sell and deliver crack cocaine and maintaining a drug dwelling, Haywood said. The Laurel Hill man was placed in the Scotland County jail under a $50,000 secured bond. His first court appearance was Monday.

Haywood said the search was conducted by the sheriff's investigators with support from the Sheriff's Emergency Response Team, the county's equivalent a SWAT team commonly called SERT. The sheriff's office uses SERT to help serve what it considers "high risk" warrants.

The sheriff's office received information through an ongoing undercover drug operation that led to the search warrants and Leake's arrest, Haywood said.

Sheriff Shep Jones said the continuing work of county drug investigators is reducing crime and preventing drug dealers from coming to Scotland County.

"There is no question that Scotland County is a safer place with this arrest," he said.

Leake has been convicted of four counts of felony drug charges, including a count of drug trafficking, in Richmond and Nash counties, according to the state Department of Correction.