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Logan drug crimes up
South Central Kentucky Drug Task Force, Russellville Police Dept. see funding cuts, and dealers are capitalizing
By DEBORAH HIGHLAND
Drug dealers and methamphetamine cooks in Logan County are taking advantage of funding cuts and manpower shortages at the South Central Kentucky Drug Task Force and the Russellville Police Department.
“With us being short, our street level dealers are picking back up,” task force Director Jerry Smith said. “Prescription drugs are back up right now. We’re working hard on that, trying to come up with ways to get them.”
The task force that investigates drug crime in Logan and Simpson counties is down from six investigators to four, and funding has been cut for the second straight year, hindering efforts to track and prosecute dope dealers, Smith said.
At one time, the Russellville Police Department supplied two officers to the drug task force. But because of manpower shortages in the city department, those officers were pulled away from the task force and reassigned in the city department to prop up safety services there, Smith said.
Russellville is advertising to hire new police officers. Mayor Mark Stratton, who manages the day-to-day operation of the city, did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story.
“There’s so many people making meth out here that they’re dumping their (meth) trash all over the roadways,” Smith said. “We have people call all the time that are finding it.”
Smith is also seeing an increase in street-level cocaine dealers in Logan County.
“We’re short, and I’m sure word of mouth gets out,” Smith said.
In September, Smith’s agency will run out of funding to pay overtime to investigators.
Logan County Sheriff Wallace Whittaker said he’s noticed an increase in methamphetamine cooks. People are out of work, meth is easy to make and there’s a strong market for the drug, Whittaker said.
The drug task force arrested a Glasgow man Wednesday after investigators spotted an unattended car parked in a farm field.
Investigators searched the area and found an anhydrous ammonia tank with the valve open and the chemical draining into 5-gallon buckets. Anhydrous ammonia, a farm fertilizer, is one of the primary ingredients needed to make meth.
The driver of the unattended vehicle, Jonathon Adam Wilson, 32, of Glasgow, came out from hiding before police K-9 units were turned loose to look for him. Wilson is charged with theft by unlawful taking and possession of anhydrous ammonia in an unapproved container.
“The drug task force needs more manpower and definitely more funding,” Whittaker said. “Basically, they are overloaded, and they don’t have the manpower to answer every drug complaint that is made right now. Probably not a night goes by that we don’t arrest somebody on drug charges.”
South Central Kentucky Drug Task Force, Russellville Police Dept. see funding cuts, and dealers are capitalizing
By DEBORAH HIGHLAND
Drug dealers and methamphetamine cooks in Logan County are taking advantage of funding cuts and manpower shortages at the South Central Kentucky Drug Task Force and the Russellville Police Department.
“With us being short, our street level dealers are picking back up,” task force Director Jerry Smith said. “Prescription drugs are back up right now. We’re working hard on that, trying to come up with ways to get them.”
The task force that investigates drug crime in Logan and Simpson counties is down from six investigators to four, and funding has been cut for the second straight year, hindering efforts to track and prosecute dope dealers, Smith said.
At one time, the Russellville Police Department supplied two officers to the drug task force. But because of manpower shortages in the city department, those officers were pulled away from the task force and reassigned in the city department to prop up safety services there, Smith said.
Russellville is advertising to hire new police officers. Mayor Mark Stratton, who manages the day-to-day operation of the city, did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story.
“There’s so many people making meth out here that they’re dumping their (meth) trash all over the roadways,” Smith said. “We have people call all the time that are finding it.”
Smith is also seeing an increase in street-level cocaine dealers in Logan County.
“We’re short, and I’m sure word of mouth gets out,” Smith said.
In September, Smith’s agency will run out of funding to pay overtime to investigators.
Logan County Sheriff Wallace Whittaker said he’s noticed an increase in methamphetamine cooks. People are out of work, meth is easy to make and there’s a strong market for the drug, Whittaker said.
The drug task force arrested a Glasgow man Wednesday after investigators spotted an unattended car parked in a farm field.
Investigators searched the area and found an anhydrous ammonia tank with the valve open and the chemical draining into 5-gallon buckets. Anhydrous ammonia, a farm fertilizer, is one of the primary ingredients needed to make meth.
The driver of the unattended vehicle, Jonathon Adam Wilson, 32, of Glasgow, came out from hiding before police K-9 units were turned loose to look for him. Wilson is charged with theft by unlawful taking and possession of anhydrous ammonia in an unapproved container.
“The drug task force needs more manpower and definitely more funding,” Whittaker said. “Basically, they are overloaded, and they don’t have the manpower to answer every drug complaint that is made right now. Probably not a night goes by that we don’t arrest somebody on drug charges.”
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