-from wjbdradio.com-

Bond has been set at 150-thousand dollars for a 35-year-old Centralia man formally charged in Marion County Court yesterday with unlawful possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of a title without complete assignment. Johnnie Jones of North Lincoln is accused of having possession of less than 15 grams of cocaine and a four wheeler with an open title when Centralia Police executed a search warrant on his home Thursday night.

A 36-year-old Centralia man is free on five-thousand dollars cash bond after being formally charged in Marion County Court yesterday with aggravated unlawful restraint and domestic battery. Alphonso Fletcher of North Elm is accused of holding a knife to the throat of Valencia Matthews at her home on North Sycamore in Centralia and later grabbing Matthews around the neck with his arm. Another person in Matthews home Thursday night left and alerted Centralia Police who made the arrest.

A 29-year-old Washington, Illinois man has pleaded guilty to forgery. Robert Eagan is accused of writing a 15-hundred dollar check on the account of an elderly Centralia man and cashing it. Eagan was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to make 24-hundred dollars in restitution. A charge of unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia was dropped as part of the plea.

-from wltx.com-

By Kerri Hartsfield

(Columbia)- An anti-gang coalition is forming in Columbia, just two weeks after a teenager was gunned down at the Barnyard Flea Market in West Columbia.

“We are very much intolerant of the violence taking place in our communities,” said A.V. Strong, who has worked with Project Gang Out for seven years.

After learning that the events that unfolded at the Barnyard Flea Market were gang-related, Strong knew his work was far from over.

“It made me wonder, what kind of hatred are we harboring in our hearts that we can take an AK-47 and shoot into a crowded flea market and into a vehicle 20 times,” he said.

Now, Strong and a coalition of community leaders are taking a stand against gang violence, hoping others will follow.

“What we can’t afford to do is nothing,” said Strong. “If you do nothing, expect nothing.”

The newly formed coalition plans to take their anti-gang message to the streets on August 6th at 4 p.m. A peace march will start at Finley Park and end at the State House.

“I want everybody involved from the churches to the legislature to the police force to the families,” said Cynthia Manning, whose son died in a gang shoot-out three years ago.

“Every time I hear about another child that’s been lost, it hurts all over again,” said Manning, who hopes the upcoming rally will keep other kids from following the path her son chose.

“I don’t want another mother to suffer a loss like I did,” she said.

-from wtov9.com-

By Cardelli & Jackie Cain

A drug suspect led police on a high-speed pursuit through Wheeling, crashed his car, then continued running on foot.

Leon Prater, of Euclid, Ohio, is charged with possession with intent to sell cocaine, fleeing from police, and a slew of traffic violations.Police said the chase started around 2:20 a.m. Friday when they attempted to pull Prater over for a traffic violation on 11th and Market Streets.Police said Prater started to pull over, then waved a peace sign and sped off. Prater raced toward the suspension bridge, which is when resident Floyd Yost saw the chase and picked up his video camera.”I heard a car going past really fast. I head a little squeal and then I heard it hit something. When I looked out over in front of Dr. Pappi’s office there was a car against the tree,” Yost said.Prater sped through several stop signs before crashing his car into a tree on South Penn Street, but even that didn’t stop him. He then tried running on foot but was quickly apprehended.A search of his vehicle yielded $694 in cash, 24.5 grams of marijuana, 2 grams of powder cocaine, 4.5 grams of crack cocaine, 3 grams of ecstasy, and two cell phones.Police said Prater was still uncooperative even after his arrest. Officials said Prater refused to tell them his name, and they had to identify him through fingerprinting.Prater remains in the Northern Regional Jail.

-from heraldonline.com-

By Andrew Dys

CHESTER — Police in Chester County seized more than 7,700 marijuana plants late Thursday near Interstate 77 in the southern part of the county, said Sheriff Robby Benson.The seizure comes just days after authorities seized more than 6,500 plants in a nearby area in what was then the largest seizure in county history. One person was charged in that case, but Benson said Friday he was unsure if the two seizures are connected.

A person saw someone walking into the area off Old Catholic Road and alerted police, Benson said. A flyover by a State Law Enforcement Division helicopter located the plants on about 25 acres.

See Saturday’s Herald for the full story.

-from wistv.com-

Starting Wednesday, officials rounded up suspects in what Sheriff Dan Wideman referred to as a “wide-ranging, four month long investigation of drug trafficking at all levels in Greenwood County.”

More than 30 suspects face drug and weapons charges. As of Thursday afternoon 27 had been arrested.

Federal and Oconee County agents assisted with the arrests.

Several arrests stemmed from undercover drug investigations conducted in the Grier Street area in Greenwood, the scene of two shootings in recent weeks. Vice agents claim that several suspects sold them crack cocaine in that area in recent months, literally within a stone’s throw of Matthews Elementary School.

Two arrests stemmed from a recent Greenwood home invasion, where at least four people broke into a home and held a family at gunpoint while robbing them. A third suspect had been charged in that incident, but was found dead of a gunshot wound in Robeson County, NC.

One of the arrests resulted from an investigation of a Hell’s Angels ride in Greenwood last month.

Wideman said those suspects not arrested yet are wanted, and should turn themselves in immediately. Wideman added that he plans to offer cash rewards to members of the community who provide information which leads to the arrest of these suspects.

As of Thursday afternoon, deputies had arrested the following people:

• Timothy Joseph Anderson, 30, of Greenwood
• Antoine Calhoun, 27, of Greenwood
• Thomas Dorn, 24, of Greenwood
• Lindy Elliot, 20, of Walhalla
• Shane Elliot, 24, of Walhalla
• Brandon Gantt, 19, of Greenwood
• Jeffrey Garcia, 25, of Greenwood
• Christopher Hatcher, 23, of Greenwood
• Brian Jackson, 25, of Greenwood
• April Krajci, 47, of Greenwood
• Dennis Leverette, 26, of Ware Shoals
• Charles McCutcheon, 42, of Greenwood
• Billy Wayne Moore, 38, of Greenwood
• Akira Kentay Robinson, 29, of Greenwood
• Eric Robinson, 31, of Greenwood
• Mario Sepulveda, 47, of Greenwood
• Mike Shirley, 33, of Hodges
• Elizabeth Simpson, 40, of Greenwood
• Kelly Simpson, 32, of Greenwood
• Darnell “Pig” Smith, 29, of Greenwood
• Patrick Stewart, 25, Greenwood
• Willie Taylor, 30, of Greenwood
• Patricia “Sissie” Redd Ware, 36, of Ninety Six
• Chris Webb, 24, of Greenwood
• Marvin Wells, 39, of Greenwood
• Timothy Williams, 17, of Greenwood

The following people are still wanted:

• Devin Ray Brooks, 24, of Greenwood
• Willie Joe Carter, 26, of Greenwood
• Ashley Trent Ledford, 27, of Ninety Six
• Melissa Jean McClain, 40, of Waterloo
• James Edward Morris, 60, of Greenwood
• Harry Brandt Williams, 23, of Abbeville

-from dailyfreeman.com-

By Paul Kirby

KINGSTON - City Police Chief Gerald Keller went looking for prostitutes the other night in Midtown.

He busted three of them in 90 minutes.

Keller’s one-night crackdown along the city’s Broadway corridor was launched after the number of complaints about street-walking women rose from nine during all of 2005 to 20 already this year.

Each of the three accused women were charged with one count of prostitution and one count of loitering for the purposes of prostitution, both misdemeanors. The three arrests were made between 7:30 and 9 p.m. Tuesday.

The three suspects were Yolanda Mathis, 44, who is homeless, Catherine Turner, 18, of 230 Smith Ave., and Jodine Watson, 42, of 40 O’Neil St., Keller said. They were ordered held at the Ulster County Jail in lieu of $2,500 bail each.

The chief said he participated in the sting operation because prostitutes plying their trade in Kingston know the faces of officers “who are constantly chasing them off the streets.”

“It is a persistent problem,” Keller said of the city’s prostitution trade. “We do want to be responsive to the complaints.”

So, Keller said, he cruised the Midtown area for sex, and it didn’t take him long to spot Mathis at the corner of Cedar Street and Broadway. Keller said he pulled his vehicle over and she offered him oral sex for $30.

“She said she wanted to get out of the area because that was where the cops were,” Keller said. “I said ‘OK.’”

The police chief then drove the woman to an undisclosed location, where two other police officers, including Keller’s son, Bob, were waiting.

“She saw the cops and said, “I knew it! I knew it!’” Keller said.

The police chief drove away in search of another bust and found Turner at the corner of Broadway and Elmendorf Street, he said. She, too, was arrested after seeking money for sex, Keller said, adding that she pleaded not be taken to jail.

The chief later picked up Watson, who tried to negotiate with him to pay her before receiving oral sex, he said. Keller refused, but she got in his car anyway and was driven to where the officers were waiting.

“When she saw the cops, she said, ‘I was going to rip you off,’” Keller said.

Keller said most prostitutes in the city are not making bundles of money and use what they make to feed drug habits. Most of the ones who get caught don’t do much jail time, and some receive counseling, the chief said.

Mayor James Sottile said the community appreciates the chief’s effort.

“It speaks volumes about his dedication,” Sottile said.

This wasn’t the first time Keller personally arrested prostitutes. He also did it in July 2002, when a woman approached him with an offer of oral sex for money as he went into a meeting.

After making the three busts on Tuesday, Keller said his son noted that their evening activity together wasn’t the normal father-son outing.

“He said, ‘You know, most fathers and sons go fishing,’” Keller said.

-from canada.com-

VANCOUVER (CP) - Police have broken up two Vancouver-based cocaine trafficking rings that were shipping the drug to Toronto and Montreal.

Insp. Pat Fogarty of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said Thursday that the criminals used hidden compartments in modified vehicles to ship the cocaine east.

“There’s a complete service industry that has developed over the years in terms of developing and creating hidden compartments for the purposes of bringing contraband across the border or across the country,” Fogarty said.

A total of 110 kilograms of cocaine worth an estimated $8.8 million was seized, along with two vehicles and $100,000 in cash.

Six people have been charged with drug offences.

Fogarty said the traffickers took considerable care and effort to mask the smell of cocaine from police and dogs trained to detect its distinctive odour.

The investigation began after a drug seizure at the Canada-U.S. border south of Vancouver.

Fogarty said the traffickers were importing the cocaine across the border before shipping it east, where they’d net higher profits.

Charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking in cocaine have been laid against Danielle Ledesma, Herman Jacinto Munoz Perez, Julio Cesar Reyes Chico and Edy Arismendy Martinez-Marte.

All four are being held in custody, pending trial.

Cesar Maidana has also been charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking cocaine and is released on $100,000 bail.

There is also an outstanding warrant for Isaac Richard Jenkins, wanted for the same offence.

-from wten.com-

Nearly two dozen people are facing felony drug charges after a big drug bust Thursday morning. Several law enforcement agencies worked together to execute nine search warrants, and numerous arrest warrants for drug trafficking in the cities of Johnstown and Gloversville in Fulton County.They confiscated cocaine, marijuana, handguns and more than 8-thousand dollars in cash

Police say the suspects were arrested following a year long investigation into drug trafficking from New York City to Gloversville and the surrounding area.

“It’s a lucrative business in Fulton County, particularly in Gloversville…there is obviously a severe demand for the product,” says Gloversville Police Captain Jim Lorenzoni.

Police say they are doing the best they can with limited resources. They say it would help if citizens could become more involved in the community.