By Adam S. Sulfridge / Staff Writer
Hundreds of people traveling north on I-75 Thursday morning rounded a small hill to find a pair of black and white police cars parked in the median. Some motorists, even one from Florida, waved at the Williamsburg officers; others passed by visibly nervous, fearful they didn’t hit their brakes fast enough.
But around 9:19 a.m., an older model Nissan carrying three people and hundreds of prescription pills sped past Public Affairs Officer Shawn Jackson, traveling about 10 mph over the speed limit. Like many times before, Jackson routinely stopped the vehicle, checked its license plate, and asked the driver, Jarrett Nichols, 28, of Lancaster, for his license and proof of insurance.
Minutes later, Jackson asked the driver to perform a field sobriety test — a test that’s becoming an everyday procedure for Jackson when stopping cars along I-75, known to many officers as the “prescription pill pipeline.”
During this test, Jackson said, the driver failed.
Thursday’s episode was just the latest in a string of arrests connected to the “pill pipeline” from Kentucky to Florida, where regulations on obtaining prescription narcotics are much looser.
According to Jackson, pain clinics in Florida give prescriptions to “just about anyone” — often without even performing exams to check the veracity of patients’ complaints.
Police believe that in addition to getting pills for recreational use, Kentuckians are going to Florida to buy large amounts to bring back to the Commonwealth and sell on the street.
Nichols admitted to Jackson and Officer Jason Strunk that he was, in fact, returning from Florida. However, he said he was returning from a mini-vacation and said, “It’s cold here.”
Jackson, however, called Nichols’ bluff and the driver eventually admitted that his passenger had visited a pain clinic.
That passenger was Teresa J. Wiese, 34, of Nicholasville, who could be seen moving around in the back of the car before it pulled to the side of the road. She too failed a field sobriety test and admitted she had taken Percocets, which were prescribed to her in Florida.
She was originally charged with public intoxication, but that would soon change.
The third passenger, Joshua E. Hart, 27, of Nicholasville, was also arrested for public intoxication after failing a field sobriety test. While handcuffed in the back of the cruiser, Hart told Jackson he sometimes worked with drywall, saying the powdery residue in his nostrils was due to a construction project he had worked on two days prior.
All three arrested told police they were unemployed. Jackson estimated the entire trip probably cost $1,400, after accounting for gas, lodging and medical expenses.
A search of Wiese’s purse found a card with handwritten information for American Pain Clinic in Boca Raton, Fla. Last week, Williamsburg police arrested nine people within 48 hours along I-75 for drug-related charges — each time, those arrested admitted visiting that same pain clinic.
While being interviewed at the Williamsburg Police Department, Wiese asked to use the restroom.
“I had seen several red flags,” Jackson said. “I felt like she was really hiding something. Therefore I called Deputy Jailer Petrey and requested she do a thorough search.”
Petrey’s search uncovered a large, black object concealed inside one of Wiese’s body cavities.
“It’s a good thing, if we hadn’t searched, then the female probably would’ve gotten away with it,” Jackson added.
The object taken from Wiese’s body contained 134 pills inside a plastic bag, wrapped with black electrical tape. Of those pills, 55 were believed to be Percocets and the remainder were Somas. Wiese had no comment about concealing those pills in her body, but Jackson succinctly described it, saying, “It was a bad situation.”
In addition to her public intoxication charge, she was charged with tampering with physical evidence, and first- and third-degree trafficking in a controlled substance.
“We can show she was trafficking based on how it was concealed,” Chief Wayne Bird said.
Nichols was charged with speeding, DUI, and failure to maintain insurance. Hart was charged with public intoxication.
THE PIPELINE
Jackson and Strunk had been patrolling the interstate for about 45 minutes before stopping Nichols, but Chief Bird said his small department puts in plenty of hours to prevent pills from reaching streets of other Kentucky towns.
“It brings awareness, which is needed, but it ties up our officers for two or three hours at a time,” Bird said.
“Every time we deal with this, we have to inventory everything they’ve got,” Jackson explained. “But not only are we doing this for the county, we’re doing this for the entire Commonwealth. We don’t want these drugs on the street — not just in Whitley County but in any other town.
“We hope agencies all along I-75 will join us. I feel like we could sit out there and get these kind of people all day long,” he said.
On Wednesday, Williamsburg police received a message from the Kentucky State Police post in Richmond asking WPD officers to be on the lookout for a gold Mercedes reportedly returning from a pain clinic.
“Word has gotten out about the work we’re doing down here,” Jackson said. Two of those arrested within the past week told Jackson they had heard about Williamsburg’s work on I-75.
Visiting Florida pain clinics and bringing drugs with valid prescriptions back to Kentucky isn’t illegal, Chief Bird said.
Crushing those pills, snorting them, and then driving 16 hours while under the influence, is.
“Most of these guys have their pills in the proper container and there’s usually not a lot we can do under state laws. What concerns me the most is the person messed up driving a 4,000-pound vehicle, that could be my wife or kid on the other side of the interstate when they lose control and cross the median,” Bird said. “We’re seeing it all too frequently.”
Williamsburg police are sharing information with DEA officials, including such information as who was arrested, how many pills the person had, and which doctor prescribed the pills, Jackson said.
