Kentucky has the reputation of producing large amounts of marijuana. Active surveillance and ongoing investigations by our department on the drug problem is a matter of daily activity. In the past we have seized large amounts of marijuana but only small amounts of the new drug of choice "crack cocaine." Our undercover operations have shown that crack cocaine has now made its way to our area full force. Our first arrest for possession of "crack" cocaine was in 1989. Since then small amounts have been found during a variety of arrests until recently.

In April, our undercover operations netted a dozen cases for the trafficking of crack cocaine. This operation was the result of several months of investigation that lead to 12 felony sealed indictments. Even during our investigation, we had not seized or purchased a large amount of the crack cocaine from a dealer. We were sure large amounts of crack was making its way on our streets but were not able to hit the mother load. From persistence and the combined effort of investigations and patrol personnel, our luck was about to change.

When our undercover operation was preparing to go to the grand jury, information was still being compiled. In late April, one of our young patrol officers got a tip on a drug deal in progress in one of our problem areas. He notified his supervisor of the tip. Suddenly our luck began to change in a record setting way. No time was available to set up a surveillance of the drug activity. The supervisor decided to assign the case to the patrol officer. The investigation was to handled as a street level operation. The plan was set in motion and along we went.

Within an hour a record had been set for our city on a crack cocaine trafficking arrest. The patrol officer had managed to observe three individuals meeting new people every few minutes then counting their bundle of money as they went. He knew what they were up to as he converged on the trio. The officer called in his awaiting back up and what he found was approximately $4,500.00 of street value of crack cocaine. This might not seem like a large amount to some but in Maysville, Kentucky (rural America) it was a new record.

The sad part of this situation was a 14 and 16 year old were used as the runners. The adult arrested in the case was just the front man. We knew this was a common procedure used by drug dealers. We were fortunate that we were able to snatch the dealer too. The two juveniles had close to $1,000.00 in their pockets and the adult had a like amount. To jail the trio went. We were quite pleased with ourselves with this arrest. Our agency netted in one operation more that we had in multiple cases.

The next day we were completing the previous days paper work when the initial arresting officer told me he had just found out more information. He informed me that the adult arrested yesterday had rented a room at one of our local motels. The rent was due. Several people had attempted to obtain the key to the room. Offers were made to pay for the room if they could get another key. We immediately had an officer placed to observe this room while we worked on obtaining a warrant.

Search warrant in hand, we began our search. Unfortunately our drug dog was in competition in another state. It was up to us to sniff out anything illegal we could find. Within 10 minutes we made yet another new record in drug seizure for our city. Approximately $18,000.00 street value of crack cocaine was found hid in a tennis shoe that was in a suite case. We further found a small amount of marijuana, pills and an empty hand gun case. Back to the prosecutor we went!

We kept setting departmental records as the case was investigated. A second warrant was executed on the adult and bond for bail was raised to $60,000.00. When we tried to interview him he no longer had anything to say except he would see us in court. We were looking forward to that. A few days and several phone calls later, our area DEA officer made his way to our fine city. With his arrival we arranged for the government to adopt the case on a federal level. Now we are looking forward in seeing him in federal court! Larger fines and stiffer sentences.

We are not going to let our guard down and will continue to maintain the fight on drugs. We have received a lot of good press and finally made it known to the public that we are not exempt from adverse drugs. No longer can the public turn their heads and say we do not have that kind of problem. It is not just a Cincinnati or Lexington problem but a rural problem too. We realize. that our agency drug seizure record does not come close to other larger cities. We now know we are not exempt from the inner cities' problem of illegal drug use. It's here and all across America the battle continues to maintain our way of life from being changed forever.