Local News
Details about pill pipeline roundup coming today
By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer
As of about 8 p.m. Wednesday, none of the Tri-County detention centers appeared to be hosting prisoners taken in an Eastern Kentucky roundup of alleged drug dealers earlier in the day.
Details of the roundup will be given during a 2:30 p.m. press conference in Lexington, said Kentucky State Police information officer Lt. David Jude from his Frankfort office.
The sweep was seeking people who bring pills from Florida to criminally distribute them in the area.
According to KSP Capt. Kevin Payne, of the Eastern Kentucky drug-enforcement unit, every state police post in the area was participating in the roundup.
In the London post area, some 50 police officers set out from Mount Vernon around 8 a.m. Wednesday with 25 arrest warrants.
A spokesperson for the Pikeville post, which serves Pike, Floyd, Magoffin, Johnson and Martin counties, reportedly said officers in that area sought 75 to 100 alleged pill pushers.
In the days just before the roundup, about ten arrests had already been made by Powell County deputies, said Sheriff Danny Rogers.
At the regional jail in Lee County, 19 people, mostly from Wolfe County, had been lodged.
The pills, which are illegally sold in the state, are allegedly purchased outside the state, not only in Florida, but Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
The Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting system (KASPER) tracks the dispensing of drugs, and those who wish to sell the pills often buy them in other states to avoid tracking.
Florida is scheduled to install a tracking system, but it is not yet in operation, so it is a particular destination for those who wish to sell the pills.
Drug dealers sometimes provide money for addicts to go to Florida and buy the pills at clinics or doctors’ offices. They keep some for themselves and provide the dealers with the rest.
- Local News
-
-
Laurel murderer’s appeal rejected
LOUISVILLE (AP) — A former FBI informant on Kentucky’s death row for a half-dozen killings lost two appeals on Thursday, potentially closing off his last avenues to avoid execution.
-
Corbin couple’s argument over Taco Bell food leads to arrest
A Corbin man was arrested late Wednesday for second-degree assault after he beat his girlfriend, according to the Corbin Police Department.
-
Senture job fair draws half the crowd expected
Nearly 100 job seekers attended a Senture Job Fair in Barbourville Thursday.
The number of applicants was less than half what Senture representatives had hoped would attend. -
Adopt-a-Highway week begins Sunday
Volunteers will be out in force next week to spring clean Kentucky highways. The Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) announced that the Adopt-a-Highway Spring Clean Week will be held March 21-27.
-
Audit: Co. Clerk overpaid worker
Knox County Clerk Mike Corey admits he overpaid an employee by more than $8,000 in wages in 2008, but says, “I did what I had to do” for a long-time employee who faced an emergency medical situation.
-
Survey Says? Laurel Meth Watch making a mark
Work by Laurel County’s Agency for Substance Abuse Policy (ASAP) seems to be making its mark.
-
How many actually work for the state?
Jeff Hoover has a simple question for Gov. Steve Beshear: just how many people work for state government? But he’s found it’s not such a simple answer.
-
Senate alters, then passes Amanda’s Bill
The state Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a significantly altered domestic violence bill from the version passed earlier by the House as the mother of the woman for whom it is named watched from the overhead balcony.
-
Woman cut from car after wreck on Fifth St.
A 63-year-old woman was trapped in her SUV following a two-car crash Tuesday along Fifth Street Road east of its intersection with KY 1259.
-
Truck with satellite dishes tumbles on Tobacco Road
A tractor-trailer loaded with 40,000 pounds of satellite dishes turned over in east London Tuesday morning.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Laurel murderer’s appeal rejected


