RCADC Meeting (open to the public)
Time: All Day Event

Location:  RCADC will meet at Rhea County High School, 405 Pierce Rd., Evensville, TN 37332 to support our Roane County Cadets in the 2010 C.A.M.P. competition

Rockwood police rounding up suspects in pain-pill probe

• By Bob Fowler /Knoxville News Sentinel, February 19, 2010

ROCKWOOD - Rockwood police this morning are rounding up 46 people for selling pain pills following a six-month-long undercover probe.

Most of the drugs sales were made by people making regular trips to pain clinics in Florida, Roane County District Attorney General Russell Johnson said. Sometimes, he said, even busloads of pill shoppers make the trip to Florida.

There are more than 200 such clinics in Florida and 200 more are planned, Rockwood Police Chief Bill Stinnett said.

The issue has drawn national attention and is an ongoing concern of federal law enforcement authorities, Johnson said.

Stinnett said those making trips to the clinics can receive prescriptions for up to three bottles of pain pills that have a total street value of $10,000.

Drugs that are being brought back to Rockwood, according to the police chief, include oxycodone, OxyContin and Xanax, an anxiety disorder pill nicknamed "Totem Poles" by the illicit pill peddlers.

Stinnett said the entire Rockwood Police Department hit the streets at 8 a.m. today for the drug roundup, and 15 people have already been arrested.

He said indictments against the suspects - 95 percent of them Rockwood residents - were returned earlier this week by a Roane County grand jury.

Stinnett said the undercover probe, spearheaded by narcotics investigator Joshua Rymer, began six months ago and featured a confidential informant making buys.

Pain pills on the street go for $1 a milligram, and one variety of OxyContin is an 80-milligram pill, Stinnett said.

Stinnett said most of the transactions were for small amounts, but some individuals were "selling quite heavily."

He said those traveling to Florida called their expeditions "pill shopping."

Johnson said some cases involve persons addicted to pain pills and going to a Chattanooga methadone clinic to treat addiction. Those persons then return to Roane County, sell their methadone wafers, and buy pain pills.

More details as they develop online and in Saturday's News Sentinel.

Roane County Drug Tip Line: (865) 717-4217
Calls are anonymous and confidential. Tip line is checked numerous times daily.