EX-PRISON COUNSELOR INDICTED IN DRUG DISTRIBUTION SCHEME

The 50-year-old was fired from his job in 1997 as a result of the
Department of Corrections investigation, authorities said.

A former counselor at Bland Correctional Center was indicted Wednesday
on charges of participating in a drug smuggling ring.

Vince T. Wolfe is accused of helping former DEA informant Michael
Fulcher run a marijuana ring in the prison, according to an indictment
returned by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

Wolfe, of West Virginia, is the second counselor to be charged since
October in connection with the case, which appeared to be over until
Judge Jackson Kiser ordered a new trial for Fulcher, his mother and
his wife.

Three years ago, Fulcher was indicted along with 21 others - including
four guards, nine inmates and several of the inmates' relatives - on
charges of distributing marijuana at the prison and laundering drug
money from 1995 to 1997.

Fulcher maintained that he dealt drugs as part of an undercover
operation to target corrupt guards. He was convicted in 1999, but won
a new trial based on the testimony of Don Lincoln, former head of the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in Roanoke.

Lincoln, who had worked with Fulcher on previous cases, said he may
have inadvertently given the 41-year-old informant the impression that
the DEA had approved of the undercover operation at Bland.

By the time an appeals court agreed with Kiser that the Fulchers
should get a new trial, cases against the remaining defendants had
been resolved. But federal prosecutors expanded their second
prosecution, charging a former counselor in October and then Wolfe
this week.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Mott said Wolfe was known to authorities
at the time of the initial investigation, but was only recently
located in West Virginia.

The 50-year-old was fired from his job in 1997 as a result of the
Department of Corrections investigation, authorities said. The
indictment charges that Wolfe smuggled marijuana to Fulcher inside the
prison, accepting payments of $1,200 per pound in money orders that
were sent to his friends and family members.

If convicted, Wolfe faces up to 25 years in prison and a $500,000
fine. His attorney, Paul Dull of Roanoke, said Wolfe will plead not
guilty, but declined to comment further.

The Fulchers' trial is scheduled to begin April 15.