With revenue from the seizure of drug-related property on the decline, Hawkins County Sheriff Roger Christian said Monday he may have to chop the department's marijuana eradication helicopter from the 2007-08 fiscal year budget to avoid ending up in the red. Between insurance, storage and maintenance, the helicopter costs the Hawkins County Sheriff's Office about $20,000 annually simply to possess before it even gets off the ground. Insurance is $9,300 per year alone. During the current fiscal year, the sheriff's department was anticipating $75,000 in revenue from drug fines, court costs and seizures based on previous years. But instead that figure will come in at barely over $41,000 this year. [continues 492 words]
SURGOINSVILLE - Meth lab seizures in Hawkins County last year were cut to one third the level of the previous several years as scores of traffickers and manufacturers have gone to prison and state laws make it harder to obtain meth ingredients. But, as is usually the case in the world of illegal drugs, when one product is taken off the market, another steps up to take its place. The next big drug problem to be faced by area law enforcement may be cocaine, which has been popping up in arrests in greater quantities in recent weeks. [continues 489 words]
ROGERSVILLE - The Third Judicial District Attorney General's Office is investigating the possibility of pursuing grand jury indictments against four people whose cocaine and marijuana trafficking charges were dismissed on a technicality last week. Mount Carmel police received an anonymous tip March 8 which had originated in Sullivan County that a man was being held hostage by one of the suspects. As a result of the investigation, police tracked the suspect to 286 W. Ellis Lane, which is about 100 yards outside the Mount Carmel town limits. [continues 613 words]
ROGERSVILLE - A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation program which monitors the sale of growing lamps and accessories in hopes of catching people growing marijuana indoors has achieved its first conviction in Hawkins County. Joseph A. Fore, 47, 187 Cedar Valley Road, Rogersville, pleaded guilty Friday in Hawkins County Circuit Court to manufacturing marijuana, possession of marijuana for resale and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was sentenced to three years in prison by Judge James Beckner. Fore, the owner of Fore-season Landscaping Co. in Rogersville, was arrested during a Hawkins County Sheriff's Department raid on his residence on Jan. 25, 2003, when deputies reportedly confiscated 213 marijuana plants growing indoors. Sheriff Warren Rimer said at the time that it was the largest indoor marijuana growing operation ever discovered in Hawkins County. [continues 392 words]
CHURCH HILL - There's no secret about where the Church Hill Police Department got the money to buy its newest patrol car. It reads in big bold blue letters on the back bumper that the car was "Bought with Drug Dealers' Money." The $21,600 cruiser hit the road for the first time last week. Police Chief Mark Johnson said Thursday that it took 10 years for the department's drug fund to grow large enough to purchase the car. "In the past we've used the drug fund to buy all the officers handguns so they didn't have to buy their own, and we bought all the officers shotguns and portable radios," Johnson said. "But we've never gotten a big-ticket item like a car." [continues 324 words]
CHURCH HILL - Church Hill's new drug policy for city employees will include a "one strike and you're out" penalty for offenders. The Church Hill Board of Mayor and Aldermen came to that decision during discussion of the overall employee policy at Tuesday's BMA meeting. Police Chief Mark Johnson noted that the revised employee policy stated a one-strike policy for drug offenders, while the proposed drug policy - which was presented later by Johnson - called for two strikes. The overall revised employee policy was defeated by a 3-3 vote Tuesday. [continues 237 words]
CHURCH HILL - Church Hill city employees who are also members of the local volunteer fire department may soon be subjected to random drug testing as part of a new program recommended by Police Chief and Public Safety Director Mark Johnson. On Tuesday, the Church Hill Board of Mayor and Aldermen agreed to let the National Testing Association based in Huntersville, N.C., conduct the random testing when the program is fully implemented. NTA offered a rate of $34 per person tested plus an $85 annual fee for administrative costs. Johnson said that was the lowest rate of the testing companies he received quotes from. [continues 259 words]
