Pubdate: Thu, 19 Apr 2007
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Copyright: 2007 Lexington Herald-Leader
Contact:  http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240
Author: Bill Estep, staff writer

PROGRAM THAT INVESTIGATES DRUG TRAFFICKING GETS NATIONAL HONOR

An investigation that has focused on drugs and public corruption in
Clay County has been honored nationally.

The task force that has carried out the investigation won the 2007
"Best Investigative Effort" award from the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, according to a news release from the Appalachia High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

The task force is an initiative of that program, based in
London.

"This was huge for the Appalachia HIDTA," said director Frank Rapier.
"I was extremely proud."

The investigation honored has resulted in charges against several
prominent people in Clay County, and it opened a window on links
between drugs and public corruption.

Those charged in the investigation include former Manchester Mayor
Daugh White; Assistant Manchester Police Chief Todd Roberts; onetime
911 director and city council member Vernon Hacker; two-term county
Clerk Jennings B. White; and Kenneth Day, a former county election
commissioner.

Day admitted running a major cocaine and marijuana ring, and also
described how he bought votes. Jennings White pleaded guilty to
laundering drug money for Day. Hacker said he, Daugh White and Roberts
schemed with a drug dealer to burn down a house the three wanted
cleared to make way for a new city office, then protected the man's
drug activities.

Daugh White and Roberts have denied the charges and are awaiting
trial.

Doug Abner, a minister who has helped lead a fight against drugs in
Clay County, said the investigation has given local people hope for a
better community and inspired them to get involved.

"It's made a lot of difference," Abner said.

The primary officers involved in the investigation were Timothy
Briggs, a special agent with the FBI; Kentucky State Police detectives
Marc Hopkins and Greg Pace; and Edsel "Buddy" Blair, an officer with
the London Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Smith
has prosecuted the cases.

The task force worked with other HIDTA participants, such as the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, and
with authorities elsewhere in the country.

So far, the investigation has resulted in 35 arrests in Kentucky and
other states; the seizure of 8,500 pounds of marijuana, 11 pounds of
cocaine and five pounds of methamphetamine; and collection of more
than $6.9 million in such forfeited assets as money and vehicles,
according to the Appalachia HIDTA. The investigation continues.

The Appalachia HIDTA competed against 27 others in the country for the
award. The HIDTA program is designed to bring together federal, state
and local police in a coordinated attack on drug trafficking.

The Appalachia HIDTA is made up of 27 counties in Kentucky, mostly in
the eastern part of the state with historic high levels of marijuana
production; 29 counties in Tennessee; and 12 in West Virginia.
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