Members of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department spent the better part of the day Friday rounding up defendants charged in a 2010-11 undercover drug investigation.
Forty nine of the fifty five people named in sealed indictments handed down by the grand jury Monday are charged with selling drugs ranging from dilaudid, suboxone, hydrocodone, methamphetamine, roxycodone, morphine, cocaine, oxycodone, xanax, heroin, and marijuana. Three of the people indicted were found with meth labs and three others were indicted on theft charges.
Many of those arrested Friday were brought to the county fire department’s main station on King Ridge Road which served as the sheriff’s department’s outlet for booking the defendants during the day.
According to Sheriff Patrick Ray, a total of seventy seven drug buys were made through this investigation. “This is our 2010-11 drug round up that we’re doing today (Friday),” said Sheriff Ray. “These are undercover buys that we’ve made during that time span. We tried (in December) to do our indictments through the grand jury but for some reason something came up and we had to put it off,” he said.
“We have made seventy seven total drug buys in this roundup. There have been thirty two buys of dilaudid, fourteen of suboxone, nine of hydrocodone, five of methamphetamine, five of roxycodone, three of morphine, three of cocaine, two of oxycodone, two buys of xanax, one heroin buy, and one buy of marijuana,” he said.
“There were a total of forty nine drug defendants along with the three meth lab defendants, and three people charged with the thefts which makes a total of fifty five defendants in this roundup. The three defendants with meth labs, we couldn’t charge them at the time that we found the meth labs for various reasons,” said Sheriff Ray.
“On the drug buys, we made them in different areas of the county including east of Smithville from Ragland Bottom to the western part of the county around Alexandria and both the northern and southern parts of the county. We also conducted undercover drug buys around the Short Mountain Road area and in the city limits of Smithville,” he said.
“Some of these buys were in the drug free zone or school zones which are drug free. What that actually means is that when we charge somebody with that (violation of the drug free zone) it ups it (felony charge) a class. So if somebody gets charged with a C felony, it ups it to a B felony. Its also (must serve) 100% of the jail time (upon conviction). The drug free zone is 1,000 feet of any public or private school, preschool, child care agency, public library, recreational center, or recreational parks such as a ballpark or something like that,” said Sheriff Ray.
“I want to thank my department for the job that they are doing in our county. I am very proud to employ people with the professionalism and the desire to work at their jobs so that a difference can be made for the citizens of the county to enjoy their quality of life. Undercover drug operations such as this one today, our day to day drug arrests and burglary and theft arrests are the work that I have promised the citizens of DeKalb County and I am very proud of what we have accomplished thus far,” he said.
I encourage anyone who knows anybody that is selling drugs to call our drug tip line at 464-6400. We’re also on the web at www.dekalbsherifftn.com. which has places (links)on the left hand side of the web page where you see “crime stoppers” and “stop drug dealers”. You can get on there and share your information. We can gather it off of there. You can contact me at the jail and tell anything that you know. Everything is confidential,” said Sheriff Ray.
WJLE will release the names of the defendants once they are made available from the sheriff’s department.
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