SMITHFIELD – The Johnston County Sheriff’s Office has announced an arrest in a criminal investigation involving law enforcement authorities in North Carolina, Virginia, and Ohio.
Demetrius Somaz Alston, age 55, of Forest Island Drive, Smithfield was arrested March 15 by Johnston County sheriff’s detectives and charged with three counts of obtaining property by false pretense and three counts of exploiting a disabled/elderly person.
Alston was linked to a telephone and computer scam in October 2023 where he allegedly targeted a 97-year-old woman in Arlington, Virginia and stole $334,790.81.
He was also linked to a December 2023 computer scam involving a 79-year-old woman in Reynoldsburg, Ohio where she was defrauded out of $34,000.
One of Alston’s family members, Denise Shante Pugsley, age 31, of Brogden School Road, Smithfield was arrested on December 19, 2024 after being linked by the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office and the Lee County, Florida Sheriff’s Office to a scam in October 2024 in Florida where an 84 year-old woman was coerced out of $22,100 after being tricked into thinking her personal computer had been hacked.
Pugsley was given a $25,000 on her charges in December.
Alston was held on a $500,000 secured bond.
NOWWWW, throw the book at their sorry lame arses!!!!!
AND in addition to my first comment….with all the money this Pugsley person stole…you mean to tell me this is the best wig she could find??? Just awful!!!
Shame on you! Taking from old people….you disgust me. Get a job and work and stop this stealing..You should have to pay all that money back..Your bond is way too low.
Just because they are black they were targeted by LE.. By removing DEI there will be more arrest of innocent black people
There it is, the dumbest thing read on the internet today. I hope you were sarcastic because you don’t just get arrested for scamming someone out of hundreds of thousands of dollars without having done something.
Another person taking something that doesn’t belong to them. Another person with no self-discipline. Another person that depends on public law to discipline them. Thank you JOCO Sheriff’s Office.
Racial profiling has nothing to do with their arrest! LOOK what they did! These people are elderly and I’m sure they saved from working all their lives.
What a shame, regardless of their skin color. Just so sad!
Hey Save us, Just because they were black they were targeted?? How bout they were targeted because they stole thousands of thousands of dollars from the elderly?? Get a grip on reality. Put um in the slammer and while they are in there, make them work in the prison to pay that money back. They get out when the money is paid back.
They need to stay in jail. There lazy buts will never hold a real job. They want to take money from people and make a quick buck regardless of who they might hurt in their dirty dam scams. They need to serve allot of time in jail then have to pay back these poor elderly people they scammed out of their money and pay back the taxpayers for the tome they spent in jail.