Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 31, 1993 TAG: 9301290083
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
POT CASES DOMINATE WYTHE'S ILLICIT-DRUG SCENE
Authorities seized illicit drugs valued at more than $3.3 million in Wythe County during 1992.The contraband included more than 1,600 cultivated marijuana plants with a value of more than $3.2 million, more than 60 pounds of processed marijuana valued at $120,500 and nearly $26,000 worth of cocaine.
The statistics were compiled by the Wythe County Sheriff's Department with other 1992 crime data.
Eighty-nine narcotics cases were resolved last year, 40 of them involving charges of possessing marijuana, 12 for manufacturing marijuana and 11 for distribution of marijuana.
The Sheriff's Department investigated and resolved 195 assault cases, one robbery and one rape.
It cleared up 54 percent of its larceny cases and 67 percent of the breaking-and-entering cases reported in 1992. It broke a theft ring this month involving many of the break-ins not cleared up last year.
"We have actually cleared the vast majority of our [breaking and entering] cases," Lt. Keith Dunagan said in announcing five arrests last week.
Forty-six percent of property stolen in Wythe County in 1992 was recovered in the same year. More property has been recovered this month in the latest arrests.
No murders appear on the Wythe County report this year, although one did happen. Crockett Postmaster Donna Stevenson was killed in September while at work. But the crime happened on federal property, so it is not reported in county statistics.
Jimmy Lawrence Nance, 41, has been charged in the case and is awaiting trial in federal court at Roanoke.
The Sheriff's Department solved 265 of the 312 offenses reported in 1992, or 79 percent. In 1991, it solved 269 of 340 crimes, or 85 percent.