W’burg police busts interrupt flow of prescription drugs near school

Following a nearly three-month investigation, Williamsburg police charged four people Monday evening for selling drugs near a school.
Williamsburg Police Detective Wayne Bird said all four are accused of trafficking in pills, and that the investigation began after the department was flooded with calls complaining about drug trafficking near 22 West Sycamore Street and Bryant’s Apartments.
“Officers started doing surveillance on the apartments, and there was a high volume of traffic in there, a really high volume of traffic actually,” Bird said. “Officers started making traffic stops of people coming out, and making arrests for drugs.”
“We started developing information on several different apartments in that complex, and we finally developed enough information over the months to make some controlled buys and so forth. Yesterday, we decided to just go ahead and wrap it up,” Bird said Tuesday morning.
Bird said officers started serving warrants about 9 p.m. Monday, and confiscated several pills, including several Loratabs pills and cash.
“The biggest problem we have in Whitley County is prescription pills,” Bird said.
Bird charged Edna Renee Vest, 52, of 303 North Second Street; Ronnie D. Hembree, 59, of 22 West Sycamore Street; and Donna Anderson, 47, of Apartment 14 in Bryant’s Apartments, with trafficking a controlled substance within 1,000 yards of a school.
Williamsburg Police Officer Brad Boyd charged Thelma Bibler, 38, also of 22 West Sycamore Street, with trafficking in a controlled substance in or near a school.
All four were arrested without incident, and lodged in the Whitley County Detention Center.
Vest allegedly sold a cooperating source five Lorcet pills for $10 each, according to her arrest citation.
Police allegedly made a controlled buy from Hembree then executed a search warrant, and recovered $173 cash and the buy money, his citation stated.
Bible allegedly sold two white pills to a cooperating source for $20, according to her arrest warrant.
Anderson’s citation didn’t list the details of her charges.
“It is a problem that has been going on for a long time up there. Hopefully, we have taken care of it,” Bird added.
Bird was assisted by Assistant Chief Rick Mosley, Boyd, and Officers Bobby Freeman and Josh Bunch.