By SEAN KIMMONS
An alleged San Marcos cocaine dealer was nabbed with a large amount of the drug following a sting operation by the Hays County Narcotics Task Force on Nov. 15, authorities say.
The task force was tipped off that Chad Laprade, 22, had been selling cocaine in the city. A surveillance crew pursued Laprade and watched him enter Chimy’s restaurant on East Hopkins Street. Once he left the restaurant, Laprade walked to a back alley and met another male subject also known to be a cocaine dealer, a law enforcement reports says.
Officer Jayson Cormier, assigned to the task force, detained both men and called for a K-9 unit to sniff the outside of Laprade’s vehicle. After the police dog alerted authorities, a search of the vehicle found about a half ounce of packaged cocaine ready for sale, an affidavit used to secure an arrest warrant says.
With Laprade in custody, the task force executed a search warrant on his apartment in the 600 block of Mill Street. There, a range of illegal material was discovered: a plastic baggy with less than a gram of cocaine, a glass jar with less than two ounces of marijuana, a digital scale with cocaine residue as well as a handgun with two loaded magazines and an undisclosed amount of cash, says the affidavit, written by Cormier.
In the end, Laprade racked up three charges that included manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance, a first-degree felony; possession of a controlled substance, a state jail felony; and possession of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor, court records show.
A day after being arrested, Laprade was released from Hays County Jail on bonds worth $65,500. His arraignment is slated for Jan. 6 at the 22nd District Court in San Marcos.
Before this incident, Laprade had received nine months of probation on June 24 for another possession of marijuana charge back in March, records show. The report did not give the name of the other accused cocaine dealer.
