EFFORTS TO COMBAT DRUG TRADE TO EXPAND

Cabell Officials Explore Countywide Unit; Police Add Drug Force Member

HUNTINGTON -- Local governments showed the first signs of beefing up
drug-fighting resources Thursday in the wake of the May 22 shooting deaths
of four area teenagers.

At least two Cabell County Commissioners indicated Thursday morning they
will support allocating interest monies to help establish a countywide drug
unit, as the Huntington Police Department said it has added a fifth member
to its local drug force.

Cabell County Sheriff's Department officials believe the developments are
first steps in spearheading a consolidated street-level drug unit focused
on erasing drug trafficking and violence from Huntington's streets, along
with smaller communities and neighborhoods throughout the county.

Such strategies have been successful Charleston and Chillicothe, Ohio.

All the plans came as local detectives left for Detroit on Thursday
afternoon in search of any information leading to the arrests of those
responsible for the killings of four area teenagers along Charleston
Avenue. Huntington Police Capt. Steve Hall said detectives have not
determined whether drugs were involved in last month's fatal shootings, but
investigators believe a drug dealer from Detroit could have pulled the trigger.

Chief Deputy Jim Scheidler, of the Cabell County Sheriff's Department, told
commissioners Thursday that his group will be able to join with the State
Police and other departments to quickly respond to any drug leads.

"I will assure you that you will reap the benefits of what I intend to do,"
he said. "There's a lot more (drugs) in this county than people realize.
What I would like to be able to do is to establish an independent unit to
where we effectively, right then, on a daily basis, arrest people."

Scheidler and Sheriff Kim Wolfe said their ultimate plan is to coordinate a
street-level drug unit that consolidates resources from state, county and
local law enforcement agencies.

Members of the Sheriff's Department and commission said the county drug
unit is not a knee-jerk reaction to the May 22 fatal shootings, but simply
a case of added manpower that recently became available.

Scheidler told commissioners three deputies recently graduating the State
Police Academy and another officer finishing his day-to-day duties at
Cabell-Midland High School will free the resources to form such a drug unit.

Scheidler and Wolfe would not release many specifics about their
multi-agency strategy because they are still meeting with those federal,
state and municipal departments to coordinate items including manpower and
funding.

They hope to finalize details and announce their plan next week.

Hall had not heard of the county's intentions Thursday afternoon, but said
any help is welcome eliminating the city's drug trade.

"Obviously, it's needed or we wouldn't have the violent crime that we
have," he said. "At this stage in the game, it's all about providing safety
for our citizens. If that helps ensure the safety of our citizens, then God
bless them and I'm all for it."Hall said his local department has added one
officer to its city drug unit Thursday, and named Sgt. J.T. Combs as the
new commander leading the special force.

Cabell County took the first step toward supporting its portion of the
countywide drug unit Thursday when Commissioners Bob Bailey and Scott Bias
indicated they support reallocating the $20,873 in interest monies to the
Sheriff's budget.

That money has been withheld from the law enforcement budget since March
2004, when the previous Commission voted not to allocate the funds until
the Sheriff provided information as to how it would be spent.

Bailey said the creation of a county drug unit now makes it easy for him to
support reallocating the funds because he knows it will be put to good use.

"If you know anything about a drug unit, you know you're going to have to
have buy money," Bailey said. "It takes money in order to run a drug unit,
and the way the drug problem is in Huntington and Cabell County, I think we
should help them anyway we can. It's their money and let's give it to them."

Similar multi-agencies have helped fight drug trafficking in Charleston and
Chillicothe, Ohio.

Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said his county's Metro
Drug Unit is operated by the Charleston Police Department, but has the
cooperation of the county Sheriff's Department, the State Police and about
seven smaller municipal agencies.

Kanawha's Commission contributes about $35,000 annually to the metro unit,
and Carper said he credits the cooperation with helping local official
chase dealers from town to town.

"The bad guys, the drug dealers, win when the police don't cooperate," he
said. "You don't want to hamper the police by some artificial line. That's
why it works so well.

"Drug dealers move around. They don't care about breaking laws, so they
don't care about selling drugs in one county, then in the city and back in
the county again," Carper added.

About two hours north in Chillicothe, Ohio, police credit the U.S. 23 Major
Crimes Task Force with eradicating out-of-town drug dealers from their
streets and communities.

Maj. Jim Calhoun, director of the task force, said his group aggressively
pursues confidential tips and looks for ways to initiate normal traffic
stops for anything from burned out tail lights, to failure to signal and
speeding.

Police dogs will then often find drugs in the vehicle with connections to
Detroit, Columbus or Dayton.

Calhoun said the force nabbed more than 300 drug cases, most of which
involved cocaine, during its first year of operation in 1998. That was in
comparison to about 27 cases conducted by a special investigation unit in 1997.

In 2004, Calhoun said his force conducted about 350 cases and was beginning
to notice a decline in cocaine activity.

"Actually, we see (drug dealers) moving just outside of our jurisdiction to
elude our task force, but even that's not working," he said.

That's because Calhoun said the force is constantly looking for new
agencies to join the task force.

Currently the U.S. 23 task force consists of 22 county and local agencies,
along with 12 federal and state agencies supporting efforts.