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Mostly sunny skies with gusty winds. With the highways and economic factors, its all a perfect storm.. 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. Politically, Washington County has always tilted right. Three people were taken into custody in Washington County last week on drug charges involving fentanyl and crack cocaine. On February 19, city health officials reported the number of heroin overdoses to which EMS crews and city police responded to. In truth, Hagerstown has a higher poverty rate than Baltimore City, a higher percentage of people under 65 with a disability, lower home-ownership rates, and a lower percentage of its workforce with college degrees. Big out-of-town industries such as Fairchild Aircraft, which once employed 10,000 people and closed its plant in 83, and Mack Trucks, which arrived in 1961 (and still makes trucks here, although it employs fewer people), were controlled from a distance and had no stake in the community, Elliott asserts. The NFT is housed within the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) at the DEA's Hagerstown Office. Now, however, nearly all of the rails leading into downtown have been removed. Marshals Service; Homeland Security Investigations; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the West Virginia Air National Guard;U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and U.S. attorney's offices in West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Inside the bedroom, Heather Strausbaugh sat talking with her client the conversation ranged from nightlife and bars to their families. The Washington County Narcotics Task Force received assistance from the Washington County Sheriff's Office, Hagerstown Police . I cannot count the number of friends who have died after I almost did, says Katie Wetzel, 27, a recovering addict in Hagerstown who is now married with three kids. 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. HAGERSTOWN, Md. Ketia Daniel, founder of BHM Cleaning Co., is BestReviews cleaning expert. (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. It could not be determined Wednesday if those arrested remained in custody or were on pre-trial release. When a methadone clinic was first proposed at this site, two blocks from Hagerstowns main street, in the spring of 2001, it was met with vehement opposition. However, the shops we visited had good deals and were brightly lit, clean and had nice staff. A sitting train and truck behind a lot along West Franklin Street. Simms is being held at the Caroline County Detention Center without bond. People often use the term self-medicating to describe why people use drugs or alcohol, says Ron Zuskin, a licensed clinical social worker and former University of Maryland faculty member who has worked in Western Maryland. Its low-income, and I think its hard for people to find and keep employment there, he says. Jim Robison, Director for the Washington County Narcotics Task Force. Thats how strong the grip of this addiction is.. HAGERSTOWN, Md. Rise of a street boss By 1973,. Cameron Tibbs, one counts of distribution of heroin. Baltimore, Md. His associate, 33-year-old Rodney Gaines, or "Butta" was also arrested. Butler is being held at the Caroline County Detention Center without bond. During the execution of the search warrant, Smith informed law enforcement that he had a storage unit in Hagerstown, Maryland and told officers where he kept the keys to the unit. In 2019, there were 119 non-fatal and 24 fatal overdoses reported in Allegany County. The person arrested on the outstanding warrant was Violet Benjamin, 53, of Hagerstown. I fully bought into the War on Drugs and what Reagan was doing, he says. 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. in Hagerstowns North End, according to Lt. Todd Kerns, who served as the task forces director in 2013. 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. Instead, you go get high and forget about it for a while., Forty-year-old Brooks Zombro, who has lived in Hagerstown his whole life, puts it another way: Hagerstown is a manufacturing town, then we lost all those factory jobs our parents and grandparents had, [and] it has become a playground for big box retail that has all but eliminated and destroyed our downtowns small business district. But the sad fact is that in 2018, Phoenix Health Center drawsmore people downtown than anything else on a Saturday. TheCaroline County Drug Task Force is a multi-agencydrug task force, based inRidgely, Maryland; which functions under the direction and control of thedrug task forceadvisoryboard. (Currently affiliated with the Nationals, the Suns draw a South Atlantic league-low 896 fans per game; Frederick led the Carolina League in attendance from 2012-2016, attracting nearly 5,000 fans a game.). The 30-count indictment charges the residents of Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and the Dominican Republic with trafficking large amounts of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine base and cocaine hydrochloride from Hagerstown to locations in Berkeley County, West Virginia, from August 2020 to June 2021. The number of child abuse cases has gone up. osh Morningstar could be the poster boy for the use of prescription opioids gone awry. 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. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. College Park mayor, DC COVID Centers to close at the end of March, Mother calls for answers after son killed by police, MTPD: Two teenagers arrested, one had gun, Burglar used Germantown mans toothbrush, razor,, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. I legitimately thought about that for five or six hours that day. Jackie Devon Thompson, 41, of Frederick, Md. This designation provides local agents enforcement powers anywhere in the United States. This place is a blessing. Breezy Jill Beckette, 22, of 807 Hamilton Blvd. U.S. Attorney's Office December 21, 2012. Grant was treated at Meritus Medical Center and released to authorities, Kerns said. (ABC7) The news from Hagerstown wasn't good. The opioid trade has become so lucrative here that dealers from Baltimore and even New York travel to Hagerstown, and often farther into West Virginia, because they can earn up to $40 more a gram for heroin and a similarly higher profit margin for fake pills, like the counterfeit, fentanyl-laced Vicodin that killed Prince. The NTF is responsible for the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of persons who violate the controlled dangerous substance laws of Maryland, regardless of the sophisitication of the illicit operation. My daughter went to school with her. Up until that point, most people in Washington County viewed addiction as a criminal justice issue. Consider, for example, that three of the four railroad properties on the Monopoly board were spokes in that Hagerstown hub, connecting the city to Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and New York. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. Derosiers isBeing held at the Dorchester County Detention Center held without bond. A lot of them are just taking their normal dose and get hit with this new shit cut with fentanyl. While this is small victory for the task force, agents say the communitys drug problem is far from over. The first three municipality lawsuits against drugmakersall Ohio casesare scheduled to be heard in U.S. District Court in Cleveland early next year. The Caroline County Drug Task Force started the investigation by looking into the operation of a drug trafficking organization believed to be distributing large amount of cocaine, opioids,. 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. 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. Is Hagerstown eating its way to dementia? Those charged are: Lenin Erasmo Luna Mota, also known as "Papi," 48, of Hagerstown, Maryland and the Dominican Republic For the past 44 years, since Valley Mall was built on the outskirts of town, shuttering the department stores, retail shops, restaurants, theaters, and five and dimes, there have been hopes of reviving Hagerstowns once-thriving city center. Ten years ago, the Hagerstown native started having seizures once or twice a week that left his muscles tense, his bones aching, and his head feeling like it might explode. And for the past two-and-a-half decades, the city has taken a public health approach to addiction, offering methadone programs, needle exchanges, HIV testing, and inpatient treatment opportunities before the pharmaceutical industry dumped OxyContin and other opioids onto a nave market. Through further investigation, law enforcement determined that Smith supplied narcotics to Tyler and Eddie Ware, Hagerstown, Maryland heroin and fentanyl drug dealers. Its true that from the outside, the county seat of some 40,000 people still looks a bit like Mayberry, with its turn-of-the-century architecture, elegant City Park, church spires, tidy sidewalks, and walkable streets. Its not as conscious a decision as that. Spain is being held at the Caroline County Detention Center without bond. A block away, two restaurants that would become staplesJone and Don Bowmans Bulls and Bears and E. Jay Zuspan IIIs 28 Southsoon opened. Methadone, he argues, is a drug just like heroin. He found an opiate specialist doctor and took Suboxone for about a year, then safely weaned off. Travon Bristol, two counts possession with intent to distribute spice aka K-2 and one count of maintaining a common Nuisance. The Caroline and Dorchester County Task Forces, Homeland Security Investigations and Drug Enforcement Administration, were further assisted by Dorchester County States Attorneys Office, Dorchester County Sheriffs Office, MSP Special Operations Group, MSP STATE Team, MSP Homicide, MSP PACE, MSP Gun Unit, MSP Criminal Investigations (Easton, Centreville, Salisbury, Princess Anne and Worcester), MSP Technical Surveillance Unit, Easton Police Department, Wicomico County Sheriffs Office, Talbot County Narcotics Task Force, Kent County Narcotics Task Force, Queen Annes County Narcotics Task Force, Somerset County Narcotics Task Force, Queen Anne's County Sheriffs Office, Federalsburg Police, and the Hurlock Police Department. HAGERSTOWN, Md. The investigation involved federal, state and local law enforcement agencies includingthe Eastern Panhandle Drug Task Force; the Berkeley and Jefferson County sheriff's offices; the Martinsburg, Charles Town, Ranson and Hagerstown police departments;the Washington County Drug Task Force; West Virginia and Maryland state police; the FBI; the U.S. The steel tracks of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad started carrying locomotives from Baltimore in the same direction, straight through the heart of Hagerstown, two years after the end of the Civil War. A huge component of this initiative includes a $40-million effort, started in 2017, which will expand three key institutionsthe University System of Maryland at Hagerstown, the Maryland Theatre, and Barbara Ingram School for the Artswith a slated completion date of spring of 2020. Its not the white picket fence. Forget Special Agent in Charge Washington, DC @DEAWashingtonDC June 29, 2022 Contact: Public Information Office Phone Number: (571) 362-1934 For Immediate Release Patrica Diaz,four counts of possession with intent to distribute spice, three counts of maintaining a common nuisance for distribution of a controlled dangerous substance. 2023 www.heraldmailmedia.com. NOW PLAYING ABOVE. Conspiracy to commit possession with intent to distribute narcotics. He blames forces beyond the citys reach, as well as futile and often misguided leadership. Add to all of this one more factor: Three prisons in Hagerstown, includings two state penitentiaries, have had a habit, according to local law enforcement officials, of leaving ex-offenders in town once theyre released. But there is often trauma, or simply the stress of living in poverty, that is putting them under intense pressure.. 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. In the early 1980s, King ran a large drug operation in East Baltimore and was a well-known figure, driving a DeLorean sports car and smoking with a bejeweled Zippo. Lewis Chamberlain, two counts of distribution of heroin. Men outside a Hammond Street garage. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Information for Victims of 1st Million Dollars, LLC. Life is great now, he says. 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. Beckette was charged with three counts each of intent to distribute narcotics and possession of a controlled dangerous substance that was not marijuana, according to online court records.