GORE TRIAL BEGINS WITH DRUG TRADE TESTIMONY

FLORENCE - About 30 people were selling drugs regularly during the
mid-1990s in Atlantic Beach, according to testimony Tuesday in the trial of
a former Town Council member. Four witnesses testified in U.S. District
Court during the first day of trial in a drug trafficking case involving
former Councilman Vander More Gore, his nephew Johnny Lee Gore and Anthony
Pridgen.

The men are charged with conspiracy to distribute more than 50 grams of
crack cocaine, more than 5 kilograms of powder cocaine, 50 kilograms of
marijuana and less than 100 grams of heroin.

The trial is scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. today.

"This case is all about family," Assistant U.S. Attorney Rose Mary Parham
told the jury in her opening statements. "And it is all about family drug
dealing that has been going on for years."

Vander More Gore's two sons, Vander Keith Gore and Jeffrey Lee Gore, and
his nephew Ronell Gore, have pleaded guilty to the charges.

Parham said most of the prosecution's 52 witnesses are convicted drug
dealers who have made plea agreements with the government.

Parham said she must prove to the jury that the three defendants worked
together in selling drugs. She said the case involves more than 50 drug
dealers working in Atlantic Beach for more than 20 years.

The defense compared the government to tuna fishermen.

"Sometimes those nets catch innocent people," said attorney Chip Finney,
representing Pridgen.

Finney is the son of Vander More Gore's attorney, Ernest Finney Jr.,
retired chief justice of the S.C. Supreme Court. Johnny Lee Gore is being
represented by Hank Anderson.

The defense focused on the witnesses' plea agreements. By agreeing to
testify, the witnesses, all of whom are in prison or facing prison time,
have a chance to have their sentences reduced.

Three witnesses, Andrew Page of Florence, Greg Bellamy of Little River and
Demetrius Lewis of Atlantic Beach, said they had been involved in drug
activity with the defendants. The fourth witness, Tyrone Powell of
Hallsboro, N.C., had not finished testimony Tuesday.

The witnesses described a white Chevrolet Lumina they called a "stash car"
that they said was owned by Vander More Gore. A stash car has a secret
compartment where drugs are stored.

Witnesses said they normally dealt with Jeffrey Gore but also worked with
Vander More Gore.

Bellamy testified that he sometimes bought drugs from Vander More Gore.

Page said he also dealt with Pridgen - whom he called a close friend - and
saw Pridgen deal drugs with other people.

Page said testifying against Pridgen was "the hardest thing I've ever had
to do."

Bellamy said he has known Vander More Gore and Johnny Lee Gore about 25
years. He started selling drugs in the 1980s, he testified.

"Everyone I was hanging around with was doing it," Bellamy testified. "I
had to make money."

When he was arrested in the early '90s, it was for selling drugs he bought
from Vander More Gore, Bellamy testified.