Published: January 08, 2009 07:36 pm      

Drug raid nets two

BLUEFIELD — Thursday morning’s snowfall didn’t stop area law enforcement officers from executing a search warrant at a Mercer County residence, finding illegal drugs, money, weapons, cell phones and suspected stolen property while arresting two suspects on unrelated charges.

Lejuan Kelly, 21, and Donald Greene Jr., 18, both of Bluefield, were arrested following the 8:45 a.m., search of their residence at 1516 Highland Ave., in Bluefield.

“They’re being held on unrelated charges at this point while officers go through the evidence,” Chief Joe Wilson of the Bluefield Police Department said. “We have received several complaints from people living in that section of town,” Wilson said. “We did some surveillance, conducted an investigation, asked a judge for a search warrant and executed the search warrant this morning.”

Wilson said that officers of the Southern Regional Drug and Violent Crime Task Force, the Mercer County Special Weapons And Tactical (SWAT) team, the Bluefield Police Department, Princeton Police Department and Mercer County Sheriff’s Department participated in executing the search warrant.

“We found a substantial amount of roxycontin (a brand of oxyCodone), a substantial amount of U.S. currency, two loaded hand guns, several cell phones and we seized property that we believe may have been traded in for drugs.

“The community sent us a loud message that it wanted us to investigate illegal drug activity in that part of the city, and this investigation is one of the things we’re doing in response to the concerns of the public,” Wilson said.

Wilson said that the case remains under investigation.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com