Police: Customers with no laundry help uncover drug front

RALEIGH, N.C. – Detectives suspicious over a North Carolina laundromat’s low water bills and customers without laundry say they found out the business was a front for drug sales.

Citing search warrants, WNCN-TV reports police seized 12 pounds of marijuana, 184 hydrocodone pills and $60,000 from the Transform ‘N Go Laundromat in Raleigh and the owner’s home.

After receiving tips, police reviewed utility bills and found it used little water, according to a police report. Detectives wrote that surveillance showed a “steady stream of people enter the business without laundry” and leave quickly.

Booking records show the owner, 35-year-old Ronald Middleton, faces drug-related charges including trafficking marijuana.

No working phone listing for Middleton, who’s in jail, could be found. The public defender’s office didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.