Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 23, 1991 TAG: 9103230128
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Yet the former high school May Day queen is accused of supplying a huge drug ring in the Roanoke, Bedford and Lynchburg areas.
Convicted in 1981 of state cocaine conspiracy and distribution charges, Perry now faces federal charges of supplying cocaine and marijuana to numerous dealers.
One of her sources, authorities allege, was a Salem man - Thomas Martin Harp III - who fled to Colombia in 1989 just before he was to be arrested on federal cocaine conspiracy charges.
A federal grand jury in U.S. District Court in Roanoke returned an indictment Friday charging Perry, 55, of Buchanan, and John Perry, her 33-year-old ex-husband.
Betty Perry was arrested Feb. 23 at her home on Smith Mountain Lake. Authorities have kept her profile low since then, while other people believed to be involved in the alleged conspiracy were apprehended. Even her former husband - with whom Perry was living - was not aware she had been arrested until authorities apprehended him earlier this month.
Authorities were able to locate her through confidential informants, who identified Perry as the alleged director of "a drug distribution network of subordinates" in Roanoke, Bedford and Lynchburg, according to an affidavit.
The affidavit says one informant told authorities that Perry operated from a lake house in the Goodview area of Bedford County. The informant said Perry received drugs from a New York man identified only as "John," kept them in her house for cutting and packaging, then stored them in a rental storage unit.
Informants' tips led authorities to a Peters Creek Road storage company, where Perry rented a unit, according to the affidavit.
A narcotics-detection dog sniffed out the storage unit, "reacting so violently that the dog's front paws bled from scratching the metal door," the affidavit stated.
Stored inside were eight pounds of marijuana and five ounces of high-grade cocaine. Also discovered were massive quantities of packaging material, such as heat sealers, electric and manual scales, vacuum sealers and cutting materials.
Authorities seized Perry's phone records, which showed regular calls to a telephone number in Colombia and calls to Allen "Crazy" Calhoun and Albert Ferris, both alleged to have been working for Perry.
Calhoun - recently arrested on drug charges - has a violent criminal history, having been convicted in 1982 of attempted murder of a state game warden and in 1977 for the second-degree murder of a 14-year-old Bedford County boy.
Perry, an Eagle Rock native, was arrested in 1980 by state police on drug charges. Police later charged 18 other people believed to be involved in a conspiracy to distribute 3.2 pounds of Colombian cocaine. It was then considered the largest cocaine bust in Virginia.
Those arrests were a result of a lengthy wiretap operation aimed at catching Perry and the people financing her dealings. The operation fell short of its goal - which was to snare the person or persons believed to be financing Perry's cocaine business.
Perry was sentenced to 15 years on state charges of cocaine conspiracy and distribution. She served 3 1/2 years.
"Certain things indicated that she was back in the business, so we looked at her again," Assistant U.S Attorney Tom Bondurant said.
Perry and her husband each face 10 years to life in prison, maximum $4 million fines or both.
by CNB