Gwinnett man runs across I-85 to hide when cops find 10 lbs. of heroin

When police officers opened a suitcase full of heroin in Gregory Moore’s trunk about two years ago, he tried to make a daring escape.

That didn’t prevent his arrest and conviction on charges of heroin trafficking and possessing a gun during the commission of a felony. Moore was convicted Thursday after a two-day trial.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents alerted Georgia State Patrol after a target of a federal drug trafficking investigation entered and exited Moore’s Hummer on June 24, 2015. The Homeland Security agents believed a drug deal had just taken place, according to the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office.

State troopers followed Moore out of a Wal-Mart parking lot and stopped him on Interstate 85 South near Norcross. A drug detection dog indicated there were narcotics in the vehicle, so troopers placed Moore in handcuffs. Troopers searched the car and found a gun near the driver’s seat and a locked suitcase in the trunk, the DA’s office said.

Moore told troopers the suitcase belonged to his wife and he didn’t have the keys to unlock it. As troopers opened the suitcase with bolt cutters, Moore dashed across 12 lanes of oncoming I-85 traffic and lept over a median in an attempt to escape, the DA’s office said.

Troopers found two cookie boxes with more than 10 lbs. of heroin between them in the suitcase, the DA’s office said. They later found Moore hiding at the bottom of an embankment near the highway, tangled in kudzu and briers.

Moore’s attorney, John Burdges argued in trial that Moore fled because he was intimidated by the troopers’ questioning. Burdges maintained Moore knew nothing about the heroin in the suitcase and that no DNA or fingerprints were presented to connect Moore to the suitcase.

Prosecutor Mike Morrison presented “incriminating cell phone evidence” linking Moore to the drug-filled suitcase at trial, the DA’s office said.

Moore was sentenced to 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.