Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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February 8, 2011

Lawmaker wants SW Virginia to join drug-traffic-control program

By CHARLES OWENS Bluefield Daily Telegraph

TAZEWELL, Va. — A Virginia lawmaker is asking the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to add 13 Southwest Virginia counties to its Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

The request by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., includes Tazewell, Bland, Buchanan, Dickenson and Wythe counties. Webb said counties in West Virginia and Kentucky that border Southwest Virginia are already a part of the Appalachian High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

“The resources of local law enforcement in these counties have been severely depleted as police and sheriffs deputies combat the escalating amount of drug trafficking and related crime in the region,” Webb said in a letter to R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. “The expansion of Appalachia HIDTA into these Virginia communities would extend the reach and efficiency of HIDTA, allowing it to effectively combat and eradicate, rather than merely geographically relocate, these systemic drug trafficking and production networks.”

The exclusion of Southwest Virginia, and Tazewell County in particular, from the federal designation is wrong, according to Commonwealth Attorney Dennis Lee.

“It should have been done a long time ago,” Lee said of the federal designation. “Basically, the Appalachian HIDTA circles Southwest Virginia. It is through Kentucky and into West Virginia and Mercer County. I never understand that. I met with Rick Boucher to discuss that probably three or four years ago. He indicated he understood our concern and would like to see that changed.”

However, the county was never added to the federal program. Lee said Tazewell County’s inclusion into the Appalachian HIDTA program would help area law enforcement.

“It opens us up to more resources, more intelligence, and more opportunities not only for law enforcement, but also under the HIDTA funds program,” Lee said. “There is money available for things like drug courts and for other programs that help with recovery. It would help our local law enforcement.”

Webb said Interstates 77 and 81, along with major byways that traverse Southwest Virginia, make the region an ideal distribution and trafficking juncture for illicit drugs.

“There has been a documented upsurge in drug trafficking organizations moving into the area,” Webb said in a press release issued Monday. “Galax is one of three Virginia communities which the Department of Justice has recognized as having a verified presence of Mexican drug cartels. In addition, these localities are seeing a marked upsurge in the production and interstate trafficking of methamphetamines and the diversion of pharmaceuticals such as OxyContin, Vicodin and Xanax.”

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com



 

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