"OPERATION COMBINED EFFORT" NETS 60 CHARGES AGAINST 32 PEOPLE

The Bristol Virginia fire hall became an extension of the city's jail
Thursday night when it served as the base of operations for the culmination
of a drug sting dubbed "Operation Combined Effort."

One by one, drug suspects were brought in, fingerprinted, photographed,
processed and then taken to the jail. The seven-month investigation
resulted in 60 charges against 32 people, according to Bristol Virginia
Police Chief Bill Price.

It was named for the cooperation between law enforcement agencies,
including the BVPD, the city Sheriff's Office, the Bristol Tennessee Police
Department, the Washington County Sheriff's Office and the Drug Enforcement
Agency, the police chief said.

Twenty-eight of those charged were indicted by a grand jury on 56 counts of
felony drug distribution. Two were charged with misdemeanors relating to
distribution and two were juveniles from Bristol Virginia, police said.

Seventeen were in custody as of late Thursday, police said.

Price said the roundups typically are conducted twice a year. The last,
held in August, netted 33 arrests. Since "Operation Rx," city police have
been preparing for Tuesday's sting, the chief said.

Undercover purchases of cocaine, marijuana, methadone and imitation drugs
totaled $7,000, he said, but the roundup lacked a certain drug that was
popular several months ago.

"One of the things that we're not seeing is OxyContin. We haven't seen a
lot of that in the city," Price said.

"Operation Rx" was named for the high number of prescription drug charges,
including those for possession or distribution of OxyContin, a powerful
painkiller that produces a morphine-like high.

Tuesday night, about 50 law enforcement officers gathered at the fire
department, where most were given packets of information on those charged.

At about 5:30 p.m., they set out in pairs to arrest the suspects.

"We try to head out around the same time so the word doesn't get out and
they try to run," narcotics Officer Tim Sexton said.

They knocked on doors, most of the time surprising the alleged offenders
who were indicted by a grand jury Wednesday.

While some went peacefully, a few tried to elude police.

"There was one (who ran) tonight, but we pretty much knew that was going to
happen," Sexton said, describing how a man ran into another house, where
police found him after being given consent to search the home.

Officer Clay Robinette said a man he was sent to arrest also tried to get
away, but he and his partner also were given permission to look in a home
for the suspect.

"They normally help out," Robinette said of area residents. "They're very
forthcoming about the information they have."

Price described most of those indicted as "mid-level distributors."

"It's the level that gives us the most problems," he said. "These are the
people who give us the most problems in our neighborhoods. These are the
people the citizens see."

While the department isn't solving the area's drug problems, Price said,
sting operations at least help to curb them.

"It's a big responsibility of law enforcement, and it should be a big
responsibility of our society," he said. "This, it keeps it pushed back.
It's a process. ... Are we making great big advances by doing what we're
doing now? I don't know. All I'm doing is trying."

Over the past seven months, police also seized an additional $8,000 in
narcotics, $6,000 in cash and arrested 16 people on felony drug charges --
all of whom are awaiting trial or already have been convicted, Sgt. Darrell
Duty said.

Those offenders were arrested as a result of search warrants or buy-bust
operations, during which a person who buys drugs from an undercover officer
is arrested on the spot, Price said.