Published: April 17, 2007 09:10 pm            

13 arrested in Carter drug sweep

Include illegal trafficking of controlled substances

GRAYSON — A roundup of suspected Carter County drug dealers by Kentucky State Police on Tuesday netted 13 arrests.

The operation was the culmination of a six-month KSP investigation into illegal drug activity in the county, said Trooper Elliott Gollihue, spokesman for the Ashland post of the state police.

Troopers from the Ashland post conducted the probe in conjunction with the KSP’s Drug Enforcement Special Investigations section, Gollihue said.

Those arrested Tuesday had been indicted by a Carter County grand jury, Gollihue said. An indictment is a formal accusation of a crime and does not establish guilt.

All of the arrests were for charges involving illegal trafficking in controlled substances. Nine of the suspects were from the Olive Hill area; the others listed Grayson addresses.

One of the suspects was an 80-year-old man.

The suspects were lodged in the Carter County Detention Center. Additional arrests are pending, Gollihue said.

Arrested Tuesday were:

—Leroy Wease III, 57, of Olive Hill, on four counts of first-degree trafficking.

—Chassidy Carter, 25, of Olive Hill, on one count of first-degree trafficking.

—Anita Carter, 41, of Olive Hill, on two counts of first-degree trafficking.

—John McGuire, 51, of Olive Hill, on one count of first-degree trafficking.

—Jayson McGuire, 23, of Olive Hill, on two counts of first-degree trafficking.

—James D. Claxon, 29, of Grayson, on one count of first-degree trafficking.

—Sam Pennington, 32, of Grayson, on one count of first-degree trafficking.

—Alice Lawhorn, 68, of Olive Hill, on one count first-degree trafficking and one count of third-degree trafficking.

—Charlie Cooley, 29, of Olive Hill, on three counts of first-degree trafficking.

—John Evans, 80, of Olive Hill, on three counts of first-degree trafficking.

—Justin Watkins, 39, of Olive Hill, on three counts of first-degree trafficking.

—Charles G. Ryland, 60, of Grayson, on two counts of first-degree trafficking.

—William Greer, 36, of Grayson, on two counts of first-degree trafficking.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.