ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 22, 1996 TAG: 9603220073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
Felony drug charges have been brought against two more people in conjunction with a multiagency drug investigation that began more than seven months ago in Bedford and Bedford County.
Wanda Lee Carson Clark, 37, of Bedford is charged with one count of distribution of cocaine and one count of selling cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school. Joe Thomas Harris, 31, of Big Island is charged with one count of distributing cocaine.
Both offenses took place in Bedford, according to court papers.
"Everyone did a great job," Bedford Police Chief Milton Graham said of his department's joint investigation with the Bedford County Sheriff's Office, state police and the county commonwealth's attorney's office.
"It's to all of our benefits to work together to get these people off the streets," Graham said. "The problem is there's not any boundaries, as far as drug dealers are concerned. The people who are selling [drugs] and causing problems in the county are also the people who are selling and causing us problems in the city, and vice versa."
Last week, seven people were charged with 27 drug felonies as a result of sealed indictments handed down by a Bedford County grand jury. Four other people were arrested on felony drug charges after a joint raid March 14 in the Body Camp community.
All but one of the seven people indicted were charged for offenses that allegedly took place in Bedford.
Graham said most of the charges stemmed from alleged drug sales in neighborhoods near the Bedford Science and Technology Center and the Bridge School. "People are upset - and they have a legitimate right to be upset - about the the drug problems in those neighborhoods," he said.
The joint investigation began during the tenure of Bedford County Sheriff Carl Wells and continued into the administration of Sheriff Mike Brown.
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