-- The number of meth cases, particularly of one-pot meth labs in Western Maryland, has been experiencing a recent surge. Butler is being held at the Caroline County Detention Center without bond. Founded in 1986, the Washington County Narcotics Task Force (NFT) is comprised of members from the Hagerstown Department of Police and the Washington County Sheriffs Office. Now its everywhere here, she says. If you are in immediate danger dial 911. Thamar Smith, age 48, of Hagerstown, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin and fentanyl. Three Hagerstown residents face drug charges after suspected heroin and suspected methamphetamine with a street value of approximately $50,000 was seized along with $9,000 in cash and several. Drug & alcohol testing in Hagerstown, MD at 2 clinics. Having beautiful open spaces is important, and its important to have a connection to your community, says city engineer Rodney Tissue, who moved to Hagerstown in 1986 and raised his two daughters here. Doctor Explains. 2 counts of conspiracy to commit possession with intent to distribute controlled dangerous substances, 3 counts of using a firearm in drug trafficking, Possession of a controlled dangerous substance not marijuana. Grant was treated at Meritus Medical Center and released to authorities, Kerns said. Jackie Devon Thompson, 41, of Frederick, Md. To learn more about ChatGPT and how we can inspire students, we sat down with BestReviews book expert, Ciera Pasturel. Smith accessed the storage unit on 39 separate occasions and obtained at least 250 grams of narcotics during his visits. She tried treatment and rehab several times, and even laid down on the familys lawn once, begging her father to shoot her to put her out of her misery. I wanted to knock down doors and haul bad guys off to jail, and thats what I did for 30 years., Since his daughters death, Simmers and Brooke's stepmother, Dana, have been very public about sharing their experience, sparing none of their familys worst moments and pain. Two more telltale signs of Hagerstowns plight are present here as well: The countys storefront offices sit in an all-but-abandoned shopping center, and nearby is a Superfund site, less than a mile from three public schools, and still in need of remediation two decades after it was added to the EPAs National Priorities List. The guilty plea was announced by Jarod Forget,Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)'s Washington Division; United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; and Sheriff Douglas Mullendore of the Washington County Narcotics Task Force. Christina Boward, two counts of distribution of heroin. Jazzmen Vaughn, one count distribution of heroin and one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin. a view from the abandoned hospital parking garage across from the antietam street clinic. The drugs seized during the investigation amounted to 8.6 kilograms of cocaine, 1.02 kilograms of heroin, and 12 ounces of crack cocaine, with a street value of approximately $471,000. Grant was charged with five counts of possession of a controlled dangerous substance that was not marijuana and two counts of distributing narcotics, according to online court records. CARROLL COUNTY 30-year-old James Samms was arrested for drug distribution conspiracy. A Hagerstown. Kevin Simmers relished locking up drug users, no matter how little crack they had on them. Smith and the government have agreed that, if the Court accepts the plea agreement, Smith will be sentenced to 92 months in federal prison followed by 4 years of supervised release. On at least 30 separate occasions between April 8 and May 8, 2019, Smith visited Tyler Wares residence. Rise of a street boss By 1973,. Then he went from eating it to snorting it. A Hagerstown appliance store owner is charged with using it as a front for an illegal drug operation estimated to havehandled millions of dollars worth of drugs and proceeds, according to federal authorities. Neither did the Washington County health officer or then-Hagerstown Police Chief Arthur Smith, who questioned the wisdom of opening a methadone clinic in a city that, he claimed, did not have a heroin problem. As a result of the executed search warrant at Smiths storage unit, law enforcement located 15.4 grams of heroin, 8.9 grams of a mixture of fentanyl and heroin, digital scales with suspected heroin residue, numerous small plastic baggies, and a glass jar containing a suspected cutting agent. He was taken into custody Tuesday at his Security Road home, Kerns said. Two additional private methadone treatment centers have since opened in the area, not to mention the Washington County Health Departments outpatient addiction program, which treated more than 11,000 patients between 2013 and its closing this spring due to state budget cuts. Kevin Simmers, a retired Hagerstown police officer, lost his 19-year-old daughter to an overdose and is now building a womens recovery center, Brookes House. A sitting train and truck behind a lot along West Franklin Street. Those kind of manufacturing jobs generally pulled up stakes for cheaper labor in the South or overseas, a trend that has continued. Six years ago, at an I-81 coalition meeting of stakeholders, Western Maryland state police commander Lt. Mike Fluharty coined the phrase Heroin Highway to describe Hagerstowns I-81/I-70 nexus. Prosecutors allege that Luna Mota, the owner of Top 3 Sources, was using the West Washington Street store to keep and sell drugs. The task force also arrested Shawn Oliver on Monday for having an active warrant out for his arrest for the distribution of heroin, police said. Plainspoken but good-natured, and a well-respected journalist, Elliott started atTheHerald-Mailin 1970. Thats everyone I know. But today, while Frederick, just 25 miles east down I-70, is regularly named among the best places to live in the U.S., Hagerstown more closely resembles a microcosm of Baltimoreessentially a small town with big-city problems, continually in survival mode. Youll see people dressed up nice to see a play or film, and you have addicts walking around, says Matthew Hast, a sculptor who lives at Engine Room. HAGERSTOWN, Md. One (seemingly) solid mayor, Republican Donald Frush, who served from 1981-1985 and was known as the Father of Planning in Washington County, disappeared during his campaign for a second term and was found by a reporter at a Johns Hopkins psych ward. The rear of North and Locust Food Mart. One of the biggest mistakes city officials made was failing to sufficiantly upgrade Municipal Stadium, the nearly 90-year-old home of the minor league Hagerstown Suns, or build a new ballpark downtown. Nicholas Silverman, 20, Bronson Benjamin,33, both of Hagerstown, and Farrah Wisner, 19, of Baltimore were arrested and charged with possession. Stretching from New York to Tennessee and Baltimore to Utah respectively, I-81 and I-70 are two of the longest interstates in the U.S., and they intersect in Hagerstown. The following people were indicted during the investigation: Justin Aaron Spain, 41, of Lanham, Maryland. (DC News Now) The Hagerstown Police Department said officers executed a search and seizure warrant at 115 S. Mulberry St. on Oct. 7, finding fentanyl, crack cocaine, $5,000 cash, and firearms. Forget Special Agent in Charge Washington, DC @DEAWashingtonDC June 29, 2022 Contact: Public Information Office Phone Number: (571) 362-1934 For Immediate Release The 30-count indictment alleges the operation trafficked large amounts of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine base and cocaine hydrochloride from Hagerstown toBerkeley County, West Virginia, between August2020and June of this year, according to a news release from Bernard's office. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. Though extreme, the transition seemed gradual. Thats how strong the grip of this addiction is.. Including Brookes father. There were things going on, but no cohesiveness at the top.. Scrubbing Baltimores Marble Steps Was My Very First Job, How Actress Rachel Hilsons Baltimore Roots Influence Her Work Today, The Mount Vernon Virtuosi is Much More Than a Chamber Orchestra, Deer Park, MD Was Once an Elite VacationlandThanks in Part to its Famous Water, Artist James Evans Uses Photographs and Words to Combat Prejudice in Nature, Baltimore School for the Arts Debuts a Student-Run Newspaper. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Its not as conscious a decision as that. Before long, he was buying heroin because it was cheaper than pills, and he went from snorting to injecting it, simply to maintain the same highand eventually just to function, if you could call it that. This pooling of investigative resources benefits each investigative unit with increased manpower, less duplication of effort, and by coordinating the targeting of drug offenders. Multiple law enforcement agencies ultimately provided assistance with the investigation. Agents say anyone wishing to report narcotics information is encouraged to contact the task force by calling 301-791-3205, emailing drugtip@washco-md.net, orvisiting their website at wcntf.net. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Bernard had high praise for the cooperative efforts of the agencies involved, saying "they did a tremendous job. It's hard to imagine Hagerstown and similar cities receiving restitution anywhere near the true cost of the opioid epidemic and officials acknowledge that. October of 2011, I woke up one day and thought, this is the day you die or the day you get clean. An official website of the United States government. HAGERSTOWN (WJZ) -- Seventeen Hagerstown residents and one Frederick resident were among 34 arrested Wednesday morning on indictments in a drug trafficking conspiracy. 2023 www.heraldmailmedia.com. Hagerstown is still a meat and potatoes kind of place, says Elliott. I mean you can kind of look at it as a small part of the community that we you know are dealing with but we know its not just at the end of security road, washignton gardens that end of town, its all over the town, said Sgt. According to Bernard, those charged are: Lenin Erasmo Luna Mota, also known as "Papi," 48, of Hagerstown, Maryland, and the Dominican Republic Its nearly impossible to find a family, including those among the Hagerstown Police Department and City Council, that has not been affected by the towns still-escalating opioid epidemic. Hagerstown, Md. Christine Jenkins, one count of distribution of heroin. Another resident artist, Anthony Jones Jr., is a recovering cocaine addict and alcoholic who credits artand Engine Roomas part of his salvation, giving him a sense of purpose and allowing him to be creative rather than self-destructive. It is a cruel twist that Hagerstown, on the receiving end of so much heroin from Baltimore, has such a shortage of addiction specialists that the Wells House, one of the largest outpatient clinics here, utilizes Baltimore doctors via telemedicine to treat its clients. 100 West Washington Street Hagerstown, MD 21740. The bust began in the late afternoon Monday as Grant was contacted to do a deal involving an informant, and was taken into custody inside the Sheetz on Potomac Avenue, Kerns said. More than 80 percent of students at three Hagerstown public schools receive free or reduced-priced lunches. He blames forces beyond the citys reach, as well as futile and often misguided leadership. His associate, 33-year-old Rodney Gaines, or "Butta" was also arrested. With the highways and economic factors, its all a perfect storm.. (In 2007, three Purdue executives pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the misbranding of OxyContin and paid $34.5 million in fines, while the company agreed to pay $600 million to resolve a Department of Justice investigation.) The rest of the state did not share that history, and Hagerstown and towns like it are dealing with something entirely new. From the early 1970s onward, there was a vacuumeconomically, socially, politically, culturally. The operation was further supported by the Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Initiative, the Governors Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services, and the Maryland Criminal Intelligence Network Initiative. A Maryland State Police corporal who occasionally works out of the Hagerstown barrack was arrested Saturday for allegedly leaking case information and abetting an illegal drug operation, according to federal court documents. Contact WCNTF if you have information on these persons (301) 791-3205, (Use the blue dots to scroll the list of wanted persons). Washington, D.C. Man Convicted After Nine-Day Trial for Use of a Firearm in Connection with a Murder and a Robbery, and for a Drug Distribution Conspiracy. The 16-bed treatment project for women is partly to honor their daughter, who once shared her wish of getting off drugs and opening such a center with her parents, but it is also borne of frustration, as the family repeatedly struggled to get the help their daughter needed. In addition to Mota, the news release listed those indicted in connection with the alleged operation as: All but 11 of the defendants had been arrested as of Wednesday. Its a phone call away. So far in 2020, the rate of overdoses in the county has increased with 83 non-fatal . Most arent even here to get clean but to get by. Police said a more than three-year investigation. Kevin and Dana Simmers at the future site of Brooke's House. Gregory Lovern Williams Jr., 39, of Federalsburg, Maryland. She also cites the new safe needle program implemented by the county health departmentalbeit over the objection of a couple of state delegatesto combat Hepatitis C and HIV infections. Mostly sunny skies with gusty winds. Four people were apprehended, three in relation to the possession of controlled substances, and one on an outstanding warrant. Quicker than ordering a pizza.". A lot of them are just taking their normal dose and get hit with this new shit cut with fentanyl. Through the investigation and the evidence, officers were able to obtain 11 search warrants. Three Hagerstown residents face drug charges after suspected heroin and suspected methamphetamine with a street value of approximately $50,000 was seized along with $9,000 in cash and several firearms during a drug bust this week involving multiple agencies, officials said. The indictment also lists items requested for forfeiture that include more than $400,000 in cash, a .22 caliber pistol, ammunition, and six vehicles, all believed to be proceeds from the drug trafficking conspiracy. Mayor Richard Trump (no relation to the president),who ran for office on a slate that promised to return God to City Hall, abruptly resigned without explanation after nine months in office in 2006. Additionally, through further investigation, law enforcement determined that Smith supplied narcotics to Tyler and Eddie Ware, who were Hagerstown, Maryland heroin and fentanyl drug dealers. The C&O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Canal, which passes through Washington County and primarily transported coal, was already in operation by then, having been completed in 1850. If we were somehow able to turn around the [addiction] numbers today, it would take another 20 years to shake off the damage., police investigating a burglary on West Franklin Street. But the current economic picture in Hagerstown stands in stark contrast to the days when it earned its Hub City nicknamewhen five major passenger and freight lines merged here in a way that resembled the spokes of a wheel. Washington Daily Voice serves the towns of: Boonsboro, Fountainhead-Orchard Hills, Hagerstown, Halfway, Maugansville, Paramount-Long Meadow, Robinwood, Smithsburg. Perhaps as many as three-quarters of those in local methadone programs, according to recovering addicts interviewed for this story, still get high, using coke, crack, ecstasy, Spice, or benzos like Xanax, which are particularly dangerous in combination with methadone. From March 20 to April 24, 2019, law enforcement surveilled activity at the suspected unit on a daily basis and observed Smith opening the storage unit to weigh and process suspected narcotics for distribution. Tyler and Eddie Ware pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl on October 28, 2020, and January 11, 2021; respectively. Their daughter, who grew up playing soccer and basketball, became hooked on pills by 18 and then turned to heroin. Its these fast-rolling interstates that carry the deadly opioids, including heroin and fetanyl, flooding Marylands western counties. He couldnt hold down a job for more than a month or two, he says, and bounced around from one employer to the next: cleaning bathrooms, painting houses, waiting tables, making pizza. Theyll deliver. Dwayne Unglebower, four counts of possession with intent to distribute spice, three counts of maintaining a common nuisance for distribution of a controlled dangerous substance. orking with Philadelphia-based Urban Partners, the city has put together a 10-year City Center Plan, which began in 2014, to enhance the towns quality of life and attract new developers, investors, and businesses. On Monday, the following people were brought into custody: Terry Ernede Jr., two counts of distribution of heroin. Baltimore, Maryland - Thamar Smith, age 48, of Hagerstown, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin and fentanyl.. Home to one-fourth of the countys population, Hagerstown accounts for the majority of those seeking treatment, as well as the majority of overdose fatalities, which included 21 city residents in the first four-and-a-half months of this yeara pace that would, if it continues, triple last years total.
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