Not nearly enough, according to 10th Judicial District prosecutors. Members of District Attorney General Jerry Estes' staff are calling for new legislation and tougher sentencing guidelines for sellers and producers of methamphetamine. According to Assistant District Attorney Wilie Richardson, methamphetamine cases make up as much as half of prosecutors' case load in many counties. A federal task force is being developed in Dalton, Ga., and prosecutors worry meth cookers in North Georgia might move into Tennessee, according to Richardson's memo which relayed concerns the district's prosecutors voiced during a recent retreat. [continues 624 words]
DECATUR - Possibly because of nothing more than its geographical location, Meigs County was inundated with methamphetamine activity about two years ago as production of the drug surged across the state from the west. Sheriff Walter Hickman said there's been no slowdown yet. Meigs County, along with other counties in the Ninth Judicial District, has been one of the most active counties in the state in methamphetamine production enforcement. The battle still rages week to week, said Hickman. "It ain't letting up. I don't see an increase, but it's not declining either," Hickman said. "We're averaging about one a week and it seems to be holding." [continues 945 words]
Law enforcement officials everywhere agree education could be the most effective weapon against the tide of methamphetamine sweeping the country. Known by various street names like "speed," "crank," "crystal-meth," "chalk," "ice," and "glass," methamphetamine can be made from ingredients available in almost any retail store. Availability of ingredients is a fact that has been repeated by almost every media outlet. But residents who might be seeing these ingredients in large quantities in their communities might never recognize them because they don't know what they are. [continues 1176 words]
EDITOR'S NOTE: Methamphetamine laboratories seem to be found almost everywhere now. Once isolated to extremely rural areas, police officers are finding the labs filled with hazardous chemicals set up almost everywhere now, from residential neighborhoods to motel rooms and even inside cars and boats. Over the next several days, The Daily Post-Athenian examines the dangers and harmful effects this drug epidemic is having various segments of our communities. . Methamphetamine blossomed in the western United States several years ago and began a cross-country march eastward, finally arriving in Tennessee in 1999. [continues 973 words]
This Saturday's auction of seized vehicles and other property will be one of the best ever, according to McMinn County Sheriff Steve Frisbie. Frisbie said about 30 cars and trucks will cross the auction block Saturday at 10 a.m. at the McMinn County Justice Center. "This will be one of the better sales in a long time," Frisbie said. "We've got several good-looking automobiles this time." Frisbie said this Saturday's auction will include more late-model cars and trucks than are usually seen. [continues 458 words]
In a little over a week, the McMinn County Sheriff's Department has made several arrests, uncovered a suspected chop shop operation, and seized hundreds of pills in an ongoing investigation into prescription drug - particularly OxyContin - trafficking in McMinn County. Sheriff Steve Frisbie and Detective B.J. Johnson say the problem is widespread and the drug is very dangerous. OxyContin is a prescription-only painkiller for people under a doctor's care who are suffering from severe pain, according to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. [continues 934 words]
DECATUR - A bill under consideration in the Tennessee Legislature is said to threaten the state's Drug Task Force units, including the one in the Ninth Judicial District, and prompted the Meigs County Commission to unanimously approved a resolution opposing it recently. Local district attorneys question the Legislature's "motivation" in the move and its definition of "participation" as it applies to the bill. Ninth District Attorney General Scott McCluen addressed the Meigs Commission March 17, calling for opposition to House Bill 880 and its companion, Senate Bill 1281. [continues 1024 words]
A search for drugs at McMinn County High School Tuesday netted some small quantities of suspected drugs and at least one weapon as deputies and drug dogs swept school property. Sheriff Steve Frisbie said the raid Tuesday morning at the high school was a "scaled-down" version of previous lockdowns. "We were requested by the District Attorney's office that they would like to have another lockdown at MCHS and they informed me that they would just like my department to handle it," Frisbie said. "We wanted to do it a little different this time." [continues 490 words]
The former director of the 10th Judicial Drug Task Force was arraigned on indictments in McMinn County Criminal Court this and a new charge was listed on the indictments. Kenneth Don Wilson, 53, of 179 County Road 633, Etowah, was initially charged with simple possession of cocaine, according to TBI agents. A new charge of simple possession of marijuana was on the indictment issued by the Grand Jury last week. The case has now been taken by an out-of-county, pro-tem prosecutor at District Attorney Victor S. "Torry" Johnson's office in Davidson County. District Attorney General Jerry Estes said at the time of Wilson's arrest that his office would recuse itself from the case because the DTF office in Charleston and the local District Attorney's office have worked together on cases in the district. Davidson County Assistant District Attorney John C. Zimmerman is the prosecutor now handling the case. [continues 266 words]
The Drug Task Force director arrested in September on simple possession of cocaine charges waived his case to the McMinn County Grand Jury during a scheduled preliminary hearing this morning. Kenneth D. Wilson, the former director of the 10th Judicial District's DTF located in Charleston, waived his right to a preliminary hearing in General Sessions Court and the case will now be presented to the McMinn County Grand Jury in February. Wilson, 53, of 179 County Road 633, Etowah, was charged with simple possession of cocaine after Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents responded to the DTF office Sept. 3, 2002, following information that was relayed to District Attorney General Jerry Estes, according to authorities. [continues 175 words]
Calhoun Police Chief Chris Nicholson said this morning the serving of a warrant Monday night stemming from a weekend incident involving juveniles led authorities to the discovery of a suspected moonshine still near Calhoun Elementary School. Nicholson said an arrest in the investigation is pending after officers located the still, a resalable amount of suspected marijuana and prescription drugs, three to four gallons of suspected "white lightning" and a number of weapons. The police chief said the still was the first he had seen. [continues 422 words]
The 10th Judicial District Drug Task Force Board of Directors has approved a process for the selection of a new director. Jack Damoth, a former DTF member and Bradley County Sheriff's Department officer, has been serving as interim director since Director Ken Wilson's arrest earlier this month for simple possession of cocaine following a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe at the DTF office and Wilson's home in Etowah. The DTF Board fired Wilson from his post the following day. [continues 296 words]
As the investigation into allegations against 10th Judicial District Drug Task Force Director Ken Wilson continue, the DTF's role and practices in the district could come under the scrutiny of its managing board. Wilson, 53, of 179 County Road 633, Etowah, was charged recently by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation with simple possession of cocaine after an informant reported that evidence was possibly missing from the DTF's Charleston office. The drugs were allegedly found by TBI agents during a search of his home. Wilson has since been freed on $2,000 bond, fired from his job of four years and entered a plea of not guilty to the charges, according to authorities and records. [continues 1395 words]
CLEVELAND - Ken Wilson, the director of the 10th Judicial District Drug Task Force, was officially fired from his job by DTF Board members Wednesday evening during a called meeting at District Attorney General Jerry Estes' office in Bradley County. Wilson, 53, of 179 County Road 633, Etowah, was arrested around 11:30 Tuesday night and now faces charges of simple possession of Schedule II drugs, according to court records. This morning, Wilson waived his arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty to the charges, court records stated. The arrest followed an investigation begun Tuesday by Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent In Charge Richard Brogan and agents David Guy and Scott Randolph. [continues 790 words]
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation arrested the director of the 10th Judicial Drug Task Force Tuesday night on drug charges stemming from reports evidence was missing from the DTF office in Charleston. According to TBI spokesperson Jeanne Broadwell in Nashville, DTF Director Kenneth Don Wilson, 53, of 179 County Road 633, Etowah, was arrested around 11:30 Tuesday night and charged with simple possession of the Schedule II drug cocaine. TBI Special Agent In-Charge Richard Brogan arrested Wilson and booked him into the McMinn County Jail around 1:30 a.m. today. [continues 344 words]
McMinn County students won't be attending D.A.R.E classes this school year following the announced resignation of the Sheriff's Department's D.A.R.E. officer. Deputy Sgt. Brad Lane has served as the Sheriff's Department's D.A.R.E. officer since the summer of 1999, but Sheriff Steve Frisbie said this morning Lane has informed the department he intends to take another job. Frisbie said the departure leaves a gaping hole in the county's D.A.R.E. program and with no other officers trained to instruct in the program, county DARE classes will be suspended until next school year. [continues 848 words]
The sheriff's auction will be held rain or shine Saturday at the McMinn County Justice Center where vehicles and other property seized in drug or DUI arrests will be sold to the highest bidder. Sheriff Steve Frisbie said the selection of vehicles is broad and even includes a boat and a six-wheel-drive "deuce-and-a-half" military truck. "We have a decent selection of cars, two good pickup trucks and a fishing boat with a trailer and 25-horsepower motor," Frisbie said. [continues 355 words]
Drug charges filed by the Tennessee Highway Patrol in one of McMinn County's largest-ever crack cocaine busts on Friday could now become a federal case pending a U.S. District Court hearing scheduled for today in Chattanooga, according to state troopers. Troopers seized about a half-pound of suspected crack cocaine near the Hiwassee River bridge Friday in the construction zone, according to officials. Trooper Kevin Hoppe said this morning Barry Eugene Baker, 30, of P.O. Box 1625, Williamson, W.Va., and Angela Parker, 29, of 490 Six Flags Drive, Austell, Ga., are both scheduled to appear in federal court in Chattanooga on charges stemming from a traffic stop near the construction zone on I-75. [continues 270 words]
[Excerpt] Local law enforcement investigated two murders, two attempted murders and alleged unlawful businesses practices. However, although they were not among the biggest news items methamphetamine labs dominated the front page in McMinn, Meigs and several other East Tennessee counties over the past year. In the past two years methamphetamine production has steadily marched east across the country and the state, according to law enforcement. Before the first suspected lab was discovered here, authorities in Tennessee counties to the west were already swamped with methamphetamine lab cases. [continues 136 words]
