POLICE, COURTS STRUGGLE TO PUT DRUG DEALERS IN PRISON

Bluefield - When the public witnesses suspicious activity that they believe
to be illegal drug trade, they sometimes express their frustration with law
enforcement officers for not busting down the door of the suspected drug
pusher, and hauling them off to prison. "It's never that easy," Detective
Lt. Tom Helton of the Bluefield Police Department said. "One guy took four
years to get a conviction. There are rare occasions when an officer can
arrest a suspect with a quantity of drugs during a traffic stop. We had one
like that. But most of the time, it takes a year or two before we can get a
drug conviction."

Mercer County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Sadler said that meticulous police
work is reflective of a shift in law enforcement's approach to the drug
problem. "It used to be when we had a big drug round up, law enforcement
would arrest several people in possession of small quantities of drugs.

"We're trying to move on up the food chain and get the bigger people,"
Sadler said. "Before, we would get the low level dealers, but we're trying
to make arrests nearer to the top now."

Tazewell County Commonwealth Attorney Dennis Lee gained national attention
during his quest a few years ago to eradicate the illegal use of oxycodone.
Several drug users made the powerful pain killer the drug of choice
regionally, and Lee was faced with a growing number of fatal drug overdoses
in Tazewell County.

"As far as the war we've been waging against OxyContin, we've made some
headway," Lee said. "We've reached the top, and we're starting down the
other side of that mountain. There are new drugs that are coming in, and
some of the old drugs are coming back. I would say that 80 percent of the
felonies we have in Tazewell County are directly related to drugs."

"The problem has become so great that we simply don't have the resources to
control it," Mercer County Sheriff Harold Buckner said. "We don't have the
manpower we need to cover the territory we have to cover. We care about the
people and we care about families, but we really need triple the force out
there to get it under control."

The federal government has stepped up during the past 18 months and has
made a huge difference in the region's war on drugs. Assistant U.S.
Attorney John L. File works out of the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse in
Beckley, and prosecutes drug cases in a jurisdiction that extends from
Charleston in the north to War in the south.

"We have good inter-agency cooperation," File said. "It's important to note
that the vast majority of drug cases we handle originate on the local
level. Most people think that because they're federal cases, they started
with the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) or FBI, but many of these cases
start on the local level."

Some state authorities think that the long prison sentences that can come
from the federal sentencing guidelines serve as a deterrent to crime.
Virginia has guideline sentences as well, but they are not mandatory like
the federal sentences.

Defense attorney David Smith who has defended drug defendants in state and
federal court said there are negative aspects in both systems. "Drug cases
tend to be open and shut," Smith said. "Defendants don't get as much time
in the state system, but the state doesn't have as many resources
(programs) as the federal system does.

"These kids are addicted," Smith said. "Under the state system, there's no
help offered except jail time. When they come out, they go straight back to
drugs again. I've seen it. I've seen a kid go up to the judge and say:
'Judge, I've got a bad drug problem. Help.' A federal judge can recommend a
program aimed at ending drug dependency, but state court judges can't do
anything."

Buckner believes that if law enforcement can eliminate pushers, they have a
chance in the war against drugs. "We're after the ones who are supplying
these drugs," he said. "We need to put them out of business first."

Lee appreciates the appearance of public frustration, but he said that
there are hundreds of hours of police work that go into every drug case he
presents to a grand jury. When law enforcement officers invest time in a
case, it usually results in a conviction.

"They bring me a tape from an informant that wore a wire and they bring me
witnesses I can work with," Lee said. "The problem is that these informants
aren't deacons in their churches. They're all drug dealers too."

Helton said that working with a confidential informant can make or break a
case. While most of the time, the informants live up to their end of the
bargain and testify in court, he recalled one situation when the witness
balked and took the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination.

"We had made a righteous bust after a three-month investigation," Helton
said. "When the informant wouldn't testify, it blew the case out of the
water. When you get it that far, it can be disappointing."

Lee said that most of the drug cases he gets from the Tazewell County
Narcotics Task Force are "slam dunks. The prosecution is the easy part,"
Lee said. "Our officers are fighting a fire here, but we have tremendous
cooperation from the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), the U.S.
Attorneys office, the surrounding counties and the Southern West Virginia
Drug and Violent Crime Task Force. There's a lot of cooperation."

File pointed out that the majority of the work on a drug case takes place
before the defendants enter the courtroom. Sadler said that before law
enforcement officers can even obtain a search warrant, they have to have
probable cause. He said it can be "hard to get people to admit they're
involved," so as a result, the authorities have to build safety controls
into the system that allows them to work with informants who are
themselves, law-breakers.

"We get calls from people in the neighborhood who say: 'This is happening
now. Do something about it,'" Helton said. "I tell them not to expect
anything to happen by Saturday. There are task forces working throughout
the country. It's a great network. When we can get calls coming into our
task force, we can make arrests. It all takes time."

Smith said there is no question that the problem is getting worse, but in
his opinion, more state and federal resources should be going into programs
to get kids off drugs than into programs that lock them up.

"I haven't had one drug dealer who came in here with any money," Smith
said. "They're dealing to support their habit. You can see it in the
forfeiture orders - $200 or $300. We're not addressing the problem, we're
just locking it away. I'm tired of seeing kids getting locked up, because
when they get out, they're still addicts, but now they're just angry."

"Drugs will take a person who never would have committed a crime and make
them a criminal," Sadler said.

Law enforcement and court officials tend to agree that methods now used in
the war on illegal drugs tend to be methodical, but their conviction and
guilty plea rates have improved through the years. Still, they all say that
the war on drugs is far from over.