PRISON COUNSELOR INDICTED IN CONNECTION WITH DRUG SMUGGLING RING

ROANOKE, Va. -- 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.

In January 1999, Fulcher was indicted along with 21 others _ including four
guards, nine inmates and others--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, 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.

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.

If convicted, Wolfe faces up to 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

The Fulchers' trial is scheduled to begin April 15.