Thirty-five people face more than 130 felony charges after a summer operation by North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement and Raleigh police around Moore Square. State alcohol agents and Raleigh police say 35 people face charges after undercover purchases and a search tied to alleged drug manufacturing. ALE said 35 people face more than 130 felony charges after an operation requested by Raleigh police in June.
Investigators said undercover agents bought illegal drugs and alcohol on multiple occasions around Moore Square. ALE alleged that one juvenile sold crack cocaine in a park restroom while emergency workers responded to an overdose nearby. The operation's scale is established by the agencies' announcement, but the most serious narrative details remain law-enforcement allegations. Reporting them with attribution preserves the public-safety significance without treating an indictment or arrest as proof of guilt.
Agents said a 13-year-old encountered during the operation had a custody order for attempted murder and possessed crack cocaine and stolen property. A search of a Zebulon home recovered a firearm, crack cocaine and equipment ALE described as active manufacturing equipment. Several defendants were in custody and police said additional arrests were expected. The case also intersects with policy changes around the nearby bus station. Later evaluation should distinguish whether enforcement changes reported crime, emergency calls and rider experience, rather than using the charge total alone as a measure of durable improvement.
Criminal charges are allegations that prosecutors must prove in court. The operation followed complaints from nearby licensed businesses and city concern about safety around Moore Square and the transit station.
Aggregate charge counts can include multiple counts against one person and should not be read as a count of separate convicted offenses. The current evidentiary limit is that charging documents for every defendant, individual evidence and final case outcomes were not available in the initial announcement.
The next factual record will come from court filings and first appearances and additional arrests and any public accounting of seized evidence. Until those records appear, the account remains bounded by the cited reporting, measurements and explicitly attributed statements.