The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Today's Front Page

October 28, 2011

Wyoming County drug bust nets 17

By Mary Catherine Brooks Wyoming County Bureau Chief

Beginning just before the break of dawn Friday, law enforcement officers arrested 17 people throughout the day as part of an ongoing investigation into illegal drug activity.

Authorities were armed with two search warrants and a total of 76 felony warrants, searching for 25 suspected drug dealers in the Brenton, Glen Rogers, Lynco, and Oceana areas, according to Wyoming County Sheriff Randall Aliff.

Officers confiscated $3,200 in cash, prescription pills and one gun, according to Aliff.

“This is not the answer to the drug abuse problem,” Aliff said, “but it will help take some of these pills off the streets.”

At least one of those arrested complained he’d only sold one pill, Aliff said.

“If you sell one pill, that makes you a drug dealer as far as I’m concerned,” the sheriff emphasized.

“These people do this for personal gain and are taking advantage of the addiction problem here,” he noted.

“If we arrest them and put them in jail, it does take them out of the communities,” he added.

Aliff offered as an example, if authorities arrest 20 people, who may sell 30 pills a month, then that removes 600 pills a month from communities.

“Most of them sell a lot more than that,” the sheriff noted.

See complete story in Saturday's edition of The Register-Herald.

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