11 FACING 32 FELONIES IN DRUG INVESTIGATION

COLLINSVILLE - Nine people were arrested yesterday and two others are being
sought after an undercover drug operation that included the notorious Sandy
Level community, Henry County Sheriff H.F. Cassell announced yesterday.

The investigation was conducted between May 2000 and this June, focusing on
drug activity in Sandy Level, the Piedmont Estates subdivision and the
Ridgeway community, Cassell said.

Besides Henry County, arrests were also made in Martinsville and in Eden, N.C.

Eleven adults are being charged with 32 felonies. Eight of those arrested
face 29 federal felony indictments, including conspiracy to possess and
distribute cocaine and distribution of cocaine.

The three facing state charges are each charged with conspiracy to
distribute cocaine, felony possession with intent to distribute cocaine,
and distribution of cocaine.

Cassell said nearly all of those arrested in yesterday's raid were "loosely
confederated."

Officers also seized $2,000, half a kilogram of cocaine with a street value
of $21,000, as well as a truck, six cars, three all-terrain vehicles and
two handguns, Cassell said at a news conference here.

Besides the sheriff's office, the Henry County Commonwealth's Attorney's
Office, the state police, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U. S.
Attorney's Office were involved in the investigation. Martinsville police,
federal marshals, and officers from Eden and Rockingham, N.C., also
assisted with the operation.

Such operations take a long time in order for undercover operatives to
ingratiate themselves with the alleged dealers, Cassell said.

"This will do some pretty good damage in Sandy Level" and Piedmont Estates
to drug activities, Cassell said.

Cassell said this was the first major drug operation in Piedmont Estates,
where the trade is becoming more prevalent.

The Sandy Level community has become infamous for its drug activity, with
the dealers' brazenness and the fears of terrorized residents outlined in a
U.S. News & World Report article several years ago.

Many of the dealers who were then operating in the community have since
been arrested.

"This bunch as a group were much tamer than that bunch," Cassell said, even
though those charged yesterday were suspected of dealing nearly as large
amounts of drugs as their predecessors.

About 5:45 a.m., close to 80 officers, including deputies, state police
agents, and DEA officers, blocked off the communities and swept into six
homes, largely catching the suspects in their beds.

The raid was so swift and surprising that a call to one of the houses
warning targets of the raid that officers were in the area came too late.

"Everybody was in handcuffs about 20 minutes by then," Cassell said.