ENFORCEMENT KEY TO KEEPING COUNTY CLEAN

Fifteen members of a Mercer County drug ring have been charged in a
16-count federal indictment stemming from arrests nearly a year ago. To
date, 10 defendants have been sentenced and three more are scheduled. The
round-up of some key figures in Mercer County's drug activities is an
important step in ridding our area of this blight on humanity. Once called
"The Untouchables" by the Southern Regional Drug and Violent Crimes Task
Force, 10 have been sentenced in recent days in U.S. District Court in
Beckley and face many years in prison.

While we commend members of the task force and the county's law authorities
who have worked on the drug case arrests, we challenge them to continue
their hard work. There are many more arrests in Mercer County and
surrounding areas that need to be made. We are concerned about reports of
"pockets" of drug activity in various sections of the county, especially in
some rural areas as well as Princeton and Bluefield.

The sweeping damage done by drug usage not only destroys the lives of
people who use them, families and loved ones also suffer along with the victim.

We urge law enforcement officials to continue their work to wipe drugs out
of our area.