Hills, Heroin & Weapons Charges
New Orleans Saints offensive lineman Keno Hills was charged Tuesday with heroin and weapon charges after police said he was observed in a "hand-to- hand" drug deal.
Hills, 25, was booked with possession of heroin with the intent to distribute and possession of a firearm during a drug transaction. If convicted on the charges, he could face life in jail.
Col. Bob Garner of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said Hills and another man were arrested as the result of routine surveillance of a suburban New Orleans area known for drug traffic.
"It's a routine matter for us in this area," Garner told WWL television. "It appears though that a hand-to-hand buy was going down. And they were in possession of narcotics and the firearm."
The firearm was a 9 mm pistol, deputies said.
Hills was still at the Jefferson Parish East Bank lockup Tuesday evening and unavailable for comment.
Saints officials would say little about Hills' future with the team. His contract ran through the end of this year with no option.
"It's difficult to make comments now without all of the facts," Bill Kuharich, the team's president and general manager, said in a statement. "Due process will now be pursued.
"We were certainly disappointed in the news. We'll withhold further comment until all the facts are known,"
It was Hills' second brush with the law this year, although police wound up apologizing for his earlier arrest in Morgan City, La., in May. That arrest came after police got a tip Hills and another man were in a parking lot and that drugs might have changed hands.
Investigating officers found no drugs, but filed disturbing the peace charges against Hills and resisting arrest charges against the other man. Hills subsequently entered a "no-contest" plea in city court to that charge and paid a small fine.
The plea stands despite police later apologizing and saying there was no cause for the arrest.
Hills is just the latest of several Saints players to run into trouble with the law.
Other notable arrests include quarterback Kerry Collins' being accused of drunken driving in a November case that is still pending.
Wide receiver Keith Poole was recently sentenced to two years of probation for striking a man with a golf club during an altercation last August while the Saints were at training camp in LaCrosse, Wis.
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