Authorities have now identified two men that were arrested on drug trafficking charges Friday afternoon after a “large quantity” of methamphetamine was discovered in a catering vehicle on the campus of Denmark High School.
Edisson Fabio Delgado, 35, of Smyrna and DeJesus Manuel Gonzalez, 39, of Mission Hills, California, have been charged with trafficking methamphetamine and possession of a controlled substance within 100 feet of a school by the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, authorities reported on Monday.
Delgado and Gonzalez are employees of a catering company that was contracted to serve a professional film crew that had been working on the campus over the last two weeks, authorities said.
According to sheriff’s office spokesman Cpl. Doug Rainwater, the two men were taken into custody after local authorities were alerted by the Department of Homeland Security that a vehicle possibly containing a large amount of narcotics was traveling in Forsyth County.
The suspected vehicle was reportedly seen driving into the back parking area of Denmark. Deputies were immediately dispatched to make contact with the vehicle and its occupants, three catering company employees.
Through the use of a sheriff’s office K9 unit, deputies allegedly found a large amount of suspected methamphetamine inside the vehicle and detained the three suspects: Delgado, Gonzalez and another individual that was later determined not to be involved in the incident.
Rainwater said that the incident is still under investigation and more arrests could follow.
Both Delgado and Gonzalez are being held in the Forsyth County Jail under no bond.
In a statement to the Forsyth County News on Monday, Forsyth County Schools Director of Communications Jennifer Caracciolo said that the two arrested individuals were part of a third-party company that was not part of the actual production crew.
“This was one isolated incident involving two out of 600 people,” Caracciolo said. “Other than this, the production was an absolutely positive experience for all involved.”
Film crews had been working at Denmark since Oct. 18, according to a previous letter by Principal Heather Gordy to the school’s staff and community. The school was partnering with the Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce in an effort to grow the television and film industry in the county.
The filming was expected to occur during the school day in small, designated areas in the building apart from students and staff, Gordy said in the letter.
Filming at the school was scheduled to end on Monday, Nov. 4, but instead ended on Friday.
Over the two-week period that the film crew was on Denmark’s campus, all of the production’s employees were separated from students and staff, away from the day-to-day activities at the school, Caracciolo said.
During that period the campus was kept secure by security personnel hired by the film company and a local liaison familiar with the school district who was present at all times.
In addition to security personnel, Caracciolo said that all individuals that entered the campus were required to use the system’s standard visitor check-in system, which checks state-issued ID cards against the national registered sex offender database.
In the future, school system staff and the Chamber will meet to review their experience at Denmark and see what could be improved.
“For future productions, we can require film productions to choose from a specific list of vetted vendors while filming at any of our schools,” Caracciolo said.