POLICE, FBI SPLIT SPOILS

The Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force and the FBI will share $825,000 in
cash, nine trucks or cars, a mobile home and 10 firearms taken from a
marijuana ring based in Florence.

The value of the confiscated property makes it one of the largest
forfeiture cases ever in Northern Kentucky, officials said during
Wednesday's announcement.

"This was a good case for us," said Jim Paine, director of the anti-drug
agency that operates in Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties.

What the money will be spent on locally and how it will be divided among
the agencies that make up the agency hasn't been decided yet, Paine said.
Federal law prohibits the money from being spent on salaries and dictates
that it go for equipment, such as radios, guns and bullet-proof vests, to
fight "the war on drugs," he said.

Police haven't decided whether they will use or sell the vehicles, which
include a 1998 Chevrolet pickup truck, a 1999 Toyota Landcruiser and a 1997
Clayton mobile home.

Seven of eight people charged in the case have been convicted of marijuana
possession and six have received prison sentences ranging from 18 months to
five years, said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Bunning, who prosecuted the
case.

A seventh defendant, Marsheila Roberts, is to be sentenced soon in federal
court in Covington. The eighth, John Vangor of Tucson, Ariz., remains at large.

Bunning said authorities have seized 597 pounds of marijuana, believed to
be worth about $597,000, from the ring The ring, led by Jerry Roberts of
Florence, sold 300 pounds to 700 pounds of marijuana a month for the past
10 years, authorities said.

Authorities began to infiltrate the ring in June 2000, when Detective Bill
Wilson of the strike force used a cooperative witness to buy about 50
pounds of marijuana from Debra Wesley of Florence, who is Jerry Roberts'
sister. The marijuana came from a storage facility in Florence.

Jerry and Marsheila Roberts are married. Others involved in the ring: Jerry
Roberts' brother, Louis "Pete" Roberts; his sister and brother-in-law, Kim
McCoy Brock and Randy Brock; and Joe Woodland of Utah.